'HiiaiiBW^s^ 


hS'jssfzm 


^f. 


Peter    \V^.    Collins 
Library 

1933 


iS 


7'  ^i 


n,  m.  D.  (j. 


Ulbo  iire  the  JcsuiU? 


BY 

REV.  CHARI^ES  COPPENS,  SJ. 

AUTHOR  OF  VARIOUS  EDUCATIONAL  WORKS 


gOSTO'H   CeLLE^E  LIBRARY 
CUKbTJSUT  HILL,  MASS, 


ST.  LOUIS,  MO.,  1911 

Published  by  B.  Herder 

17  South  Broadway 


FRRIBURO  (BADEN) 
Germany 


I.ONDON,  W.  C. 
68,  Great  Russell  Street 


NIHIL  OBSTAT. 
Sti.  Ludoviciy  die $1  Jan.  igii. 
R,J.  Meyer,  S./., 

Praep.  Prov.  Missour. 

NIHIL   OBSTAT. 
Sti.  Ludovici,  die  21  Martii.,  191 1 

F.   G.  HOLWECK, 

Censor  Librorutn, 

IMPRIMATUR. 
Sti.  Ludoviciy  die  23  Martiiy  1911 
■f  Joannes  J.  Glenn  on, 

Archiepiscopus  Sti.  Ludovici. 


Copyright,  igii, 
by 
Joseph  Gummersbach. 


n 


0/1' 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introductory v 

I     No  Secrecy i 

11    Origin  and  Purpose  of  the  Jesuits  ...  5 

III  The  Jesuits  at  Work 12 

IV  Constitution  of  the  Society 19 

V    Increasing  Influence  of  the  Jesuits   .     .  30 

VI    The  Jesuits  and  the  Reformation  in  Ger- 
many      36 

VII    The  Jesuits  in  Catholic  Lands  ....  42 

VIII    Missions  to  the  Heathens 49 

IX     Opposition  to  the  Jesuits 59 

X     Suppression  of  the  Society 69 

XI    The  Society  Reestablished 76 

XII     Principal  Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits  .  89 


'  \ 


INTRODUCTORY 

1.  Jesuits  are  often  much  amused  at  the  strange 
notions  entertained  of  them  by  intelhgent  and 
otherwise  well  informed  men  and  women  in  this 
land  of  general  education.  The  non-Catholic 
world,  as  a  rule,  does  not  know  what  to  make 
of  them.  Some  however  among  the  bitterest 
opponents  of  the  Catholic  Church  claim  to  un- 
derstand all  about  the  Jesuits,  and  exert  them- 
selves to  the  utmost  to  denounce  them  as  con- 
stituting a  secret  society  plotting  in  every  land, 
and  in  the  United  States  in  particular,  for  the 
destruction  of  liberty,  and  the  establishment  of 
an  absolute  dominion  in  Church  and  State. 

2.  When  such  misrepresentations  are  widely 
circulated,  the  amusement  of  the  Jesuits  is  of 
course  changed  to  sadness,  on  seeing  that  their 
pure  intentions  for  the  greater  glory  of  God  and 
the  eternal  welfare  of  souls  are  so  strangely 
misunderstood.  Such  was  the  case,  for  in- 
stance, when  last  summer  a  pamphlet  was  cir- 
culated in  one  of  our  Western  cities,  of  which 
50,000  copies,  it  is  said,  were  distributed  gratis, 
containing,  amid  scores  of  false  charges,  the 
following  lines : — 


vi  Iniroduciory 

"To-day  the  Church  and  the  Order  of  Jesuits 
are  working  as  a  unit  to  make  America  CathoHc 
' — by  methods  which,  if  successful,  must  in- 
evitably destroy  our  American  Government,  root 
and  branch."  (Life  and  Action,  Vol.  2,  n.  2, 
p.  123.)  The  writer  of  the  pamphlet  quotes 
with  full  approbation,  from  an  anti-Jesuit  work, 
as  follows: — "The  General  (of  the  Jesuits)  is 
placed  above  all  governments,  constitutions,  and 
laws,  and  even  above  God  himself.  There  are 
no  laws  of  a  State,  no  rules  of  morality  estab- 
lished by  society,  no  principles  of  religious  faith 
established  by  any  Church — including  even  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  itself — that  the  Jesuit 
is  not  bound  to  resist,  when  commanded  by  his 
General  to  do  so,  no  matter  if  it  shall  lead  to 
war,  revolution,  or  bloodshed,  or  to  the  upheaval 
of  Society  from  its  very  foundation."  (lb.  p. 
124.) 

3.  Such  charges  may  not  be  believed  to  the 
letter  by  persons  of  even  average  common  sense, 
but  yet  they  help  to  spread  and  deepen  a  com- 
mon impression  that  the  Jesuits  are  a  very 
wicked  and  dangerous  body  of  men.  What 
makes  the  matter  still  worse  is  that  any  one  who 
would  wish  to  examine  for  himself,  and  for  this 
purpose  look  for  information  at  the  public  li- 
brary of  his  town  or  city,  is  very  likely  to  find 
there  no  works  on  the  subject  but  such  as  are 
written  by  bitter  enemies  of  the  Jesuits,  for  in- 


Introductory  vii 

stance,  "The  History  of  the  Jesuits,"  by  Nico- 
Hni. 

These  reasons  have  induced  the  present  writer 
to  compose  a  plain,  clear  and  exact  statement 
of  the  truth,  which,  though  very  brief,  may  give 
the  honest  enquirer  satisfactory  and  reliable  in- 
formation. 


CHAPTER  I 

NO  SECRECY 

4.  Is  it  true  that,  whatever  may  be  the  pur- 
pose for  which  the  Jesuits  chiefly  labor,  theirs  is 
a  secret  society,  something  hke  the  Freemasons? 

It  is  not  true ;  this  behef  is  entirely  without 
foundation.  The  Jesuits  have  nothing  to  hide 
from  the  public ;  they  invite  investigation,  pro- 
vided it  be  sought  in  the  facts  themselves,  not 
in  the  slanderous  writings  of  their  enemies  and 
persecutors.  Their  institute,  called  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  is  one  of  the  many  approved  Orders  of 
religious  in  the  Catholic  Church,  like  the  Do- 
minicans, the  Franciscans,  the  Benedictines  and 
others,  instituted  for  some  particular  phase  of  I 
activity  in  the  work  of  the  Church.  If  the  I 
Jesuits  had  had  any  secrets  at  any  time,  these 
would  have  become  known  to  the  world  at  large 
when,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, their  Society  was  suppressed,  their  houses 
were  suddenly  seized  by  tlieir  enemies^  all  their 
books  and  writings  taken  p"Ossession  of  and  scat- 
tered over  the  countless  libraries  of  Europe. 
No  secrets  were  discovered  then  or  at  any  other 

I 


2  PVho  Are  the  Jesuits? 

time,  because  there  were  no  secrets  to  discover. 

5.  Their  Society  was  restored  by  the  Pope  at 
the  beginning  of  last  century,  and  its  mem- 
bers to-day  are  doing  their  work  openly,  as  be- 
fore, in  the  full  light  of  public  notice,  attracting 
and  inviting  general  observation  to  all  their  in- 
stitutions, their  writings  and  their  labors. 

6.  Some  time  ago  an  article  appeared  in  a  sec- 
tarian weekly  paper,  fiercely  attacking  the 
Jesuits,  and  repeating  for  the  thousandth  time 
charges  which  had  been  a  thousand  times  re- 
futed. The  writer  of  these  pages,  besides  an- 
swering the  accusations  in  the  public  press,  wrote 
a  very  kind  private  letter  to  the  accuser,  telling 
him  that,  if  the  latter  knew  the  Jesuits  person- 
ally as  they  are,  he  would  never  have  written 
the  offensive  article,  and  inviting  him  to  visit  the 
Jesuit  college  and  see  for  himself ;  and,  if  he 
was  afraid  of  ill  treatment,  to  bring  some  friends 
along.  The  letter  added  that,  if  the  gentleman 
declined  the  kind  invitation,  he  was  requested 
to  make  an  appointment  for  a  day  and  hour 
when  he  would  be  in  his  office  to  receive  a  visit 
from  his  correspondent,  that  they  might  get  to 
know  one  another  better.  No  answer  was  re- 
ceived for  several  weeks.  At  last  one  came, 
in  which  the  editor,  in  gentlemanly  terms,  pre- 
sented a  lame  excuse  for  declining  the  interview. 
Why  not  examine? 

7.  Jesuit  houses  are  scattered  all  over  the  land, 


No  Secrecy  3 

some  college  or  university  or  parish  residence 
being  found  in  most  of  the  large  cities.  The 
teachings  there  imparted,  the  sermons  preached, 
the  writings  thence  issued  are  in  thousands  of 
public  libraries  and  private  houses,  their  alumni 
and  present  students  are  counted  by  the  tens 
of  thousands,  their  parishioners  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands.  These  are  the  proper  sources  for 
reliable  information.  No  body  of  men  should 
be  judged  by  the  speeches  and  writings  of  their 
enemies,  which  are  campaign  documents  full  of 
misrepresentations. 

8.  It  must  be  remembered  that  an  unceasing 
war  is  going  on  between  Christ  and  His  ene- 
mies, the  world,  the  devil  and  the  flesh ;  between 
the  Church  of  Christ  and  its  opponents  of  all 
classes  and  denominations. 

The  Jesuits  are  the  body  guard  of  the  Vicar 
of  Christ  on  earth,  the  Sovereign  Pontiff;  and 
like  him,  and  like  Christ,  the  Society  of  Jesus 
is,  has  been  all  along  and  will  be  calumniated : 
"The  disciple  is  not  above  the  master,"  said 
the  Blessed  Saviour.  'Tf  they  have  called  the 
good  man  of  the  house  Beelzebub,  how  much 
more  them  of  his  household!"  (St.  Matth.  x, 
24,25.) 

9.  But  how  is  it  that  sometimes  even  good 
men  hate  and  fear  the  Jesuits?  Because  they 
do  not  know  them,  because  they  are  deceived 
by    the    copious    slanders    scattered    broadcast 


4  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

against  them  in  books  and  papers,  in  English 
Hterature  generally,  which  is  in  the  main  anti- 
Catholic.  It  is  only  a  portion  of  the  Redeemer's 
prophecy : — "They  will  put  you  out  of  the  syn- 
agogues ;  yea  the  hour  cometh  that  whosoever 
killeth  you  will  think  that  he  doth  a  service  to 
God."     (St.  John  xvi,  2.) 

How  the  Jesuits  are  united  with  the  Church 
of  Christ  and  with  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  how 
they  are  animated  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ  will  ap- 
pear from  the  following  chapters. 


CflAPTER  II 

ORIGIN     AND    PURPOSE    OF    THE     JESUITS 

10.  If  anyone  desire  to  read  a  full  and  clear 
account  of  the  rise  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  and 
the  purposes  of  its  institution,  he  can  readily 
satisfy  his  curiosity  by  perusing  the  volume  of 
''The  Life  of  St.  Ignatius  Loyola"  from  the 
charming  pen  of  the  late  poet  Francis  Thomp- 
son. For  those  who  want  to  have  the  whole 
matter  in  a  nutshell  the  following  brief  account 
may  suffice. 

11.  In  1491,  a  year  before  Columbus  discov- 
ered the  new  world,  in  his  father's  Castle  of 
Loyola,  which  is  still  standing  in  the  little 
Basque  town  of  Azpeitia,  St.  Ignatius  first  saw 
the  light.  In  his  boyhood  he  was  sent  to  the 
splendid  court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Soon 
he  became  a  brilliant  and  ambitious  young 
knight,  dreaming  only  of  warlike  deeds,  and 
aspiring  to  gain  the  heart  and  hand  of  one  of 
the  first  ladies  of  the  time. 

In  1 52 1  he  stood,  the  soul  of  a  fierce  fight, 
on  the  wall  of  the  fortress  of  Pamplona,  when 
a  canon  ball  shattered  his  legs,  and  Ignatius  and 
Pamplona     fell.     The    chivalrous     French    foe, 

5 


6  JVIio  Are  the  Jesuits? 

through  aclmiration  for  his  bravery,  set  him 
free  without  ransom,  and  carried  him  in  a  Htter 
to  the  Castle  of  Loyola.  He  bore  without  other 
sign  of  pain  than  the  clenching  of  his  fists,  the 
setting  and  a  resetting  of  his  broken  limbs,  and 
after  they  were  healed  the  sawing  away  of  a 
bone  which  the  imperfect  surgery  of  the  day 
had  left  protruding  to  his  disfigurement. 

12.  To  while  away  the  tedium  of  the  long 
protracted  healing  process  he  asked  for  chival- 
rous romances ;  but  books  v/ere  not  numerous 
in  his  day,  and  he  had  to  be  satisfied  with  a 
copy  of  "The  Life  of  Christ"  and  a  book  styled 
"Flowers  of  the  Saints."  It  was  a  kind  dis- 
pensation of  a  loving  Providence,  which  thus 
spoke  to  the  heart  of  the  worldly-minded  hero. 
He  found  in  those  pages  that  there  was  a  higher 
ambition  than  that  of  worldly  honors,  that  there 
were  nobler  souls  than  those  of  Knight-errants 
and  military  conquerors,  that  there  was  a  higher 
love  than  he  had  so  far  dreamed  of.  Could  he 
not  emulate  the  Saints?  Could  he  not,  wdth 
God's  grace,  live  and  die  for  the  honor  and  the 
love  of  Jesus?  Half  measures  he  despised;  he 
would  henceforth  leave  all  earthly  attractions, 
and  devote  himself  to  a  life  of  prayer  and  pen- 
ance. 

13.  Witli  this  purpose  in  mind,  as  soon  as  he 
was  strong  enough  to  travel,  he  set  out  on 
horseback  and  rode  incoojnito  to  the  celebrated 


Origin  and  Purpose  of  the  Jesuits         7 

sanctuary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  at  Mont- 
serrat,  a  little  town  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Barcelona.  There  he  made  a  general  confes- 
sion of  his  whole  Hfe.  After  spending  a  night 
in  the  church,  kneeling  in  prayer,  he  hung  up 
his  sword  and  dagger  by  Our  Lady's  statue,  de- 
termined henceforth  to  use  only  spiritual  weap- 
ons ;  the  next  morning  he  sought  an  increase 
of  strength  by  receiving  Holy  Communion. 

14.  For  some  months  he  devoted  himself  to 
serving  the  sick  in  a  hospital  at  Manresa,  per- 
forming the  most  menial  services,  and  mean- 
while practicing  on  his  body  the  most  austere 
penances.  Next  he  retired  into  a  cave  in  the 
mountainside,  which  has  hence  become  famous 
as  the  "Grotto  of  Manresa."  He  was  ignorant 
in  spiritual  things  when  he  entered  it ;  but  dur- 
ing his  lengthy  meditations  there  he  became  so 
enlightened  that  he  composed  a  series  of  con- 
siderations which,  under  the  name  of  "The  Spir- 
itual Exercises  of  St.  Ignatius,"  make  up  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  and  useful  books  in  the 
world.  St.  Francis  of  Sales  said  of  it  in  his 
day  that  it  had  converted  more  souls  to  God 
than  it  contained  letters.  Tliat  book  contains 
the  entire  pith  and  purpose  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus. 

15.  It  was  by  going  through  those  exercises, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God  who  in- 
structed  him,   that   the   hero   of    Pamplona   be- 


8  Who  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

came  St.  Ignatius,  the  father  and  founder  of 
the  Jesuits.  It  was  by  going  through  those  same 
exercises  under  the  guidance  of  Ignatius  that 
St.  Francis  Xavier  and  all  his  other  associates 
were  formed  to  the  life  of  a  Jesuit;  and  it  is  by 
going  through  the  same  exercises  under  the  di- 
rection of  a  Jesuit  that  all  the  Jesuits  of  the 
world,  in  every  succeeding  generation,  have  been 
formed  to  their  peculiar  spirit. 

i6.  From  that  book  therefore  we  can  most  read- 
ily learn  the  spirit  and  the  purpose  of  the  Jesuits. 
The  book  can  be  got  in  any  Catholic  book- 
store. Whoever  goes  through  those  Exercises 
is  made  to  consider  most  earnestly  the  purpose 
for  which  God  has  placed  him  in  the  world,  the 
evil  of  departing  from  that  purpose  by  sin,  the 
danger  of  living  in  the  state  of  sin  and  of  thus 
exposing  oneself  to  the  punishment  of  eternal 
fire ;  the  goodness  of  God  who  invites  all  to 
repentance ;  the  means  of  obtaining  pardon  for 
sin  and  returning  to  the  path  of  duty.  Next 
Christ  offers  Himself  to  be  our  leader  in  con- 
quering the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  We  study 
His  example  in  all  the  details  of  His  earthly 
career ;  we  are  made  conformable  to  that  Divine 
model  in  His  private  and  His  public  life  and 
His  holy  death.  We  are  encouraged  by  the 
thought  of  His  Resurrection  and  His  glorious 
Ascension  into  Heaven.  Hence  many  resolve 
to  live  like  Christ,  and,  like  Him,  not  only  to  se- 


Origin  and  Purpose  of  the  Jesuits        g 

cure  eternal  happiness  for  themselves,  but  to 
labor  heroically  for  the  eternal  happiness  of 
others. 

17.  These  thoughts  were  uppermost  in  Igna- 
tius' mind  when  he  came  forth  from  the  retreat 
of  Manresa;  they  inspired  him  in  all  his  subse- 
quent career ;  they  are  the  one  great  purpose 
for  which  the  Jesuits  exist.  For  he  was  made 
to  understand,  by  the  same  Divine  light  that  had 
so  far  guided  his  meditations,  that  to  accomplish 
the  grand  purpose  conceived  it  was  necessary 
to  form  a  society  of  men  like  himself,  generous 
imitators  of  Christ,  who  should  leave  all  things 
to  follow  Jesus ;  who  should  be  a  sort  of  light 
troops  ever  ready  to  do  the  work  of  the  Blessed 
Saviour,  whom  he  called  therefore  *'the  Com- 
pany, or  Society,  of  Jesus."  Their  motto  was 
to  be  Ad  Majorem  Dei  Gloriam,  *'To  the 
Greater  Glory  of  God." 

18.  After  subduing  his  own  passions  by  a  long 
course  of  extraordinary  mortifications,  when  he 
had  come  to  delight  in  suffering  and  in  being 
■insulted  and  despised  as  Jesus  had  been  on 
earth,  he  began  to  preach  to  the  people  the  gos- 
pel of  sorrow  and  penance  for  sin.  But  he 
found  that  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  dis- 
trusted a  man  without  philosophical  and  the- 
ological education.  If  he  wanted  to  produce  a 
telling  influence,  on  the  learned  especially,  he 
would  have  to  go  through  the  lengthy  course  of 


lo  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

studies  then  general  in  the  numerous  universi- 
ties of  Europe.  Nothing  daunted  by  the  diffi- 
cuhy  of  the  task  before  him,  Ignatius,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-three,  sat  down  among  the  Httle 
boys  in  a  class  room  and  began  to  learn  Latin. 
He  pursued  his  further  studies  in  the  Uni- 
versities of  Alcala,  Salamanca  and  Paris,  Hving 
meanwhile  on  the  alms  he  begged,  mortifying 
himself,  and  profiting  by  every  occasion  to  con- 
vert sinners  and  to  lead  virtuous  souls  higher  in 
the  way  of  perfection.  It  took  him  eleven  years 
to  complete  the  course  of  studies  then  required 
of  the  scholar,  and  it  was  only  in  1535,  when  he 
was  forty-four  years  old,  that  he  was  ready  for 
the  task  which  it  was  his  ambition  to  accom- 
plish. 

19.  In  Paris  he  had  gathered  about  him  a 
small  band  of  companions,  whom  he  had,  by 
means  of  his  Spiritual  Exercises,  animated  with 
his  own  spirit.  At  the  holy  altar  they  had  to- 
gether vowed  to  God  to  go  to  the  Holy  Land, 
there  to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  the  Mos- 
lems on  the  soil  sanctified  by  the  sacred  blood 
of  the  Redeemer;  and  if  this  project  should 
prove  impracticable,  to  go  and  throw  themselves 
at  the  feet  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  to  be  em- 
ployed by  him  how  and  where  he  wished  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 

20.  All  of  them  were  young  men  of  talent, 
who   had   gone   through   a   thorough   course   of 


Origin  and  Purpose  of  the  Jesuits      ii 

study,  and  all  became  great  men,  achieving  re- 
sults far  beyond  their  expectations.  In  1537, 
Ignatius  with  his  nine  companions  knelt  before 
the  Holy  Pontiff,  Paul  III,  who,  on  finding  out 
by  careful  investigation  their  uncommon  learn- 
ing and  virtue,  offered  them  generous  as- 
sistance to  accomplish  their  worthy  undertaking. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE     JESUITS     AT     WORK 

21.  Owing  to  the  war  with  the  Turks  that 
was  then  beginning,  the  sea  had  become  im- 
passable for  pilgrims,  and  the  projected  evan- 
gelization of  the  Holy  Land  had  to  be  aban- 
doned. The  ten  companions,  all  of  whom  were 
now  in  the  holy  order  of  the  priesthood,  la- 
bored in  the  principal  cities  of  Italy,  lodg- 
ing in  the  hospitals,  serving  the  sick,  preaching 
in  the  churches  and  in  the  streets,  and  producing 
everywhere  extraordinary  fruits  of  salvation. 
As  they  were  doing  the  work  of  Christ,  if  asked 
who  they  were  they  answered  that  they  were 
"of  the  Company  of  Jesus." 

22.  Ignatius  went  to  Rome  to  inform  the  1/ 
Pope  that  all  the  Company  were  now  and  ever 
would  be  at  his  disposal.  The  offer  was  most 
welcome.  Peter  Favre,  who  is  now  honored  by 
the  Church  among  the  Blessed,  was  ordered  to 
lecture  in  the  University  of  the  Sapienza  on 
Holy  Scripture,  Peter  Laynez  on  Scholastic  The- 
ology, while  Ignatius  preached  to  the  people, 
and  gave  the  Spiritual  Exercises  to  educated 
men.     Many  of  these  came  forth  from  their  re- 

12 


The  Jesuits  at  Work  13 

treat  of  thirty  days  remarkably  improved  in 
their  Hves ;  some  of  them  abandoned  all  things 
and  joined  the  little  Company.  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  who  had  been  converted  and  sanctified 
by  those  same  Exercises  while  a  professor  of 
philosophy  in  Paris,  began  his  evangelical  labors 
in  Bologna.  Though  suffering  from  a  quartan 
fever  for  several  months,  he  there  preached  with 
unremitting  industry  and  extraordinary  success, 
foreshadowing  his  future  apostolic  career  in  dis- 
tant India  and  Japan.  Hozes,  a  late  recruit, 
soon  died,  falling  a  victim  to  his  boundless  zeal. 
Le  Jay  at  Ferrara  checked  the  ravages  which 
the  Reformers  had  begun  to  work  among  the 
people  and  in  the  court.  Salmeron,  Bobadilla, 
Rodriguez,  Broet  and  Codure  preached  in  vari- 
ous cities,  converting  multitudes  by  their  elo- 
quence and  their  holy  lives.  Soon  Italy  was  too 
restricted  a  territory  for  their  zealous  labors. 
Rodriguez  was  sent  to  Portugal,  where,  besides 
preaching  missions  and  recruiting  members,  he 
founded  seminaries  for  their  training  at  Lisbon 
and  Coi'mbra,  opened  an  institution  for  the  edu- 
cation of  lay  students,  and  was  forced  by  the 
King  to  accept  the  tutorship  of  the  heir  ap- 
parent. 

23.  Henry  VIII  having  made  himself  the  head 
of  the  Church  in  England,  Paschal  Broet  and 
Alphonse  Salmeron,  in  1542,  were  sent  by  the 
Pope  to   Scotland  and   Ireland  to  confirm   the 


14  IV ho  Are  the  Jesiiitsf 

Catholics  there  in  their  fideHty  to  the  ancient 
faith.  When  they  reached  Ireland  a  price  was 
set  on  their  heads  by  the  English  government; 
but  their  secret  progress  through  the  island,  as 
the  direct  messengers  of  the  Holy  Father, 
brought  most  timely  consolation  and  encourage- 
ment to  the  faithful  amid  the  persecution  of  their 
oppressors. 

24.  Meanwhile  St.  Francis  Xavier,  after  only 
one  day's  notice,  had  started  for  Lisbon,  whence 
he  sailed  for  Goa,  the  principal  city  of  the 
Portuguese  in  India.  He  was  eight  months  on 
the  sea,  and  detained  six  months  in  a  sort  of 
winter  quarters  on  the  island  of  Mozambique. 
But  wherever  he  was,  though  he  bore  a  commis- 
sion of  Apostolic  Nuncio  to  the  Indies,  he  spent 
his  time  in  assisting  the  numerous  sick  people. 
In  Goa  he  began  that  series  of  religious  con- 
quests which  extended  over  vast  empires,  and  in 
which,  during  his  brief  career  of  only  ten  years, 
he  is  said  to  have  baptized  about  a  million 
pagans.  His  work  was  continued  by  other 
members  of  his  Society  amid  the  greatest  dan- 
gers and  privations.  Japan  bade  fair  to  become 
a  Christian  land,  and  would  probably  have  be- 
come such  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies, if  the  Dutch  and  English  merchants,  jeal- 
ous of  the  Portuguese,  had  not  persuaded  the 
Emperor  that  the  Catholic  missionaries  were  pre- 
paring the  way  for  Portugal's  conquest  of  the 


The  Jesuits  at  Work  15 

islands,  and  thus  instigated  him  to  begin  a  most 
bloody  persecution.  The  ruse  was  deplorably 
successful.  A  law  was  made  and  inexorably  en- 
forced that  every  person  in  Japan,  and  all  who 
landed  on  its  shores,  should  be  forced  to  tram- 
ple on  the  Cross.  All  the  missionaries  were 
condemned  to  exile  or  death,  many  of  them  and 
of  the  native  clergy  were  martyred  with  most 
cruel  tortures,  thousands  of  the  laity  met  the 
same  fate ;  Christianity  was  extinguished.  Thus 
religious  division  among  Christians  was  the 
cause  that  some  pagan  lands  have  not,  long  since, 
entered  into  the  brotherhood  of  the  civilized  na- 
tions. The  same  division  is  the  chief  cause  to- 
day why  Christianity  makes  so  little  impression 
on  Japan  and  China. 

25.  While  Xavier  and  his  associates  were 
spreading  the  Gospel  through  the  East,  the 
Jesuits  in  Europe  were  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  leaders  of  the  Reformation.  Peter  Favre 
was  sent  by  Paul  III  to  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
where  a  conference  w^as  held  between  the  Cath- 
olics and  the  Protestants  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion. If  a  reconciliation  had  been  possible,  his 
gentle  character  and  evident  sanctity  might  have 
succeeded;  but  the  Reformation  was  not  the 
work  of  calm  and  prudent  counsel,  but  of  ex- 
cited minds  and  angry  passions.  He  could  only 
succeed  in  benefiting  the  Catholics  by  giving 
the  Spiritual  Exercises,  at  Worms,  Spires  and 


1 6  Who  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

Ratisbon,  to  the  bishops,  electors,  princes  and 
ambassadors  who  were  there  assembled.  Soon 
however  he  was  needed  in  Portugal  and  Spain, 
while  Le  Jay  and  Bobadilla  took  up  his  labors  in 
Germany.  The  former  was  so  strikingly  suc- 
cessful that  King  Ferdinand  wished  to  retain 
him  there  permanently  by  raising  him  to  the 
bishopric  of  Trieste.  But  while  the  Jesuits 
shunned  no  posts  of  labor  or  of  danger,  they 
refused  from  the  beginning  all  ecclesiastical  dig- 
nities ;  and  when  their  Constitutions  were  drawn 
up,  a  few  years  later,  they  obliged  all  the  pro- 
fessed members  for  all  times  to  make  a  vow 
that  they  would  not  accept  any  dignities  of  the 
Church  unless  they  were  compelled  to  do  so  by 
an  absolute  command  of  the  Pope,  which  they 
could  not  disobey  without  mortal  sin. 

26.  Germany  was  then  the  chief  battlefield 
on  which  the  Reformation  assailed  the  ancient 
Church  with  a  vehemence  and  power  that  for  a 
while  carried  all  before  them.  Prussia,  Saxony, 
Hesse,  Wurtemburg,  the  Palatinate  were  hope- 
lessly lost  to  the  Pope,  and  nearly  all  the  coun- 
tries north  of  the  Alps  seemed  on  the  point  of 
succumbing.  The  Jesuits  were  still  few,  but 
their  influence  on  Catholic  princes,  clergy  and 
people  was  far  in  excess  of  their  scanty  num- 
bers. Like  heroes  appearing  on  the  field  when 
a  battle  is  on  the  point  of  being  lost,  halting  the 
fugitives,  rallying  the  scattered  combatants,  re- 


The  Jesuits  at  Work  ly 

pelling  the  foremost  columns  of  the  foe ;  so 
moved  the  missionaries  from  city  to  city,  from 
kingdom  to  kingdom,  burning  with  zeal,  preach- 
ing with  power,  encouraging,  remonstrating,  ex- 
hibiting in  their  own  persons  austerity  of  life, 
contempt  of  riches  and  comforts,  copious  learn- 
ing combined  with  deep '  humility,  their  minds 
totally  set  on  glorifying  God  and  saving  souls. 
While  in  high  favor  with  kings  and  princes, 
Pope  and  bishops,  they  traveled  on  foot  from 
town  to  town,  or,  if  at  times  on  horseback,  ever 
with  the  poorest  outfit,  sleeping  usually  in  the 
public  hospitals  and  living  on  alms,  which  they 
begged  from  door  to  door. 

27.  Blessed  Peter  Favre  had  meanwhile  been 
edifying  Portugal  and  Spain,  giving  the  Spir- 
itual Exercises  to  many  nobles  of  the  court,  vis- 
iting the  poor,  nursing  the  sick  at  the  hospitals, 
where  he  lodged  with  his  companion  Father 
Antonio  de  Araoz,  and  meanwhile  gathering 
many  recruits  and  founding  a  house  of  the  So- 
ciety at  Valladolid.  But  again  he  was  ordered 
elsewhere.  The  Ecumenical  Council  of  Trent 
was  going  to  open,  and  he  was  to  attend  it  with 
Laynez  and  Salmeron  as  theologians  of  the 
Holy  See.  He  was  worn  out  with  labors,  but 
yet  he  started  at  once  on  the  long,  painful  jour- 
ney in  the  intense  heat  of  summer,  and  reached 
Rome  in  July,  1546,  to  die  a  few  days  later  in 
the  arms  of  St.   Ignatius,  at  the  early  age  of 


1 8  Who  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

forty  years.  Among  the  numerous  disciples  he 
had  gained  to  continue  his  labors  in  future  years 
were  St.  Francis  Borgia  and  Blessed  Peter 
Canisius,  of  whom  we  shall  speak  further  on. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE    SOCIETY 

28.  The  preceding  chapter  exhibits  in  a  clear 
light  the  spirit  that  animated  the  first  Jesuits. 
It  was  a  spirit  of  entire  devotedness  to  the  cause 
of  Christ,  which  is  no  other  than  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  salvation  of  immortal  souls.  This 
was  happily  expressed  in  the  name  they  had 
taken,  *The  Company  of  Jesus,"  and  in  their 
motto  A.  M.  D.  G.,  Ad  Majorem  Dei  Gloriam, 
"To  the  Greater  Glory  of  God."  This  super- 
natural spirit  they  had  drawn  from  the  Spiritual 
Exercises  which  had  formed  St.  Ignatius  to  his 
new  life  at  Manresa,  and  by  which  he  had  fash- 
ioned every  one  of  his  companions  to  a  peculiar 
resemblance  to  Jesus.  It  was  his  ambition  to 
carry  out  to  its  fullest  perfection  the  Divine 
plan  described  by  St.  Paul,  *'Whom  He  (God) 
foreknew  He  also  predestined  to  be  made  con- 
formable to  the  image  of  His  Son."  (Rom. 
viii,  29.) 

29.  At  first  Ignatius  relied  so  totally  on  those 
Exercises  for  the  elevation  of  all  his  disciples  to 
the  height  of  perfection  which  his  first  compan- 
ions had  attained,  that  he  did  not  contemplate 

19 


20  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

the  drawing  up  of  any  rules  or  constitutions  to 
secure  the  purpose  of  his  Institute.  But  as  the 
number  of  his  followers  increased,  and  many 
of  these  were  mere  youths  who  had  to  be  care- 
fully fashioned  by  lengthy  training  in  learning 
and  virtue,  he  saw  the  necessity  of  making  fur- 
ther provisions  for  the  future. 

30.  He  obtained  from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
Paul  III,  in  1540,  a  solemn  Bull  approving  the 
new  Institute  and  raising  it  to  the  dignity  of  a 
religious  Order.  It  was  next  necessary  to  elect 
for  it  a  Superior  General.  St.  Ignatius  made 
the  utmost  efforts  to  escape  that  post  of  author- 
ity, but  in  vain.  It  consequently  devolved  on 
him  to  draw  up  the  Constitution  of  his  Society, 
and  it  is  from  this  Constitution  that  we  can 
best  learn  the  character  of  the  Jesuit  body, 
which  we  are  examining.  The  Constitution 
itself  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  specimens 
of  wise  legislation  in  existence.  Its  wisdom  is 
due  partly  to  the  uncommon  natural  ability  of 
Ignatius,  and  partly  to  the  spirit  of  prayer  and 
study  in  which  he  elaborated  every  one  of  its 
provisions.  It  has  been  explicitly  approved  by 
twenty  Popes,  and  not  disapproved  by  one,  not 
even  by  Clement  XIV,  who  suppressed  the  So- 
ciety for  reasons  of  expediency  only,  as  a  sea 
captain  throws  even  valuable  merchandise  over- 
board to  save  the  vessel  in  a  storm. 

The  first  care  of  Ignatius  was  to  admit  into 


The  Constitution  of  the  Society       21 

his  society  such  only  as  were  likely  to  develop  a 
spirit  of  zeal  and  self-sacrifice,  and  to  perform 
properly  the  labors  of  the  Institute.  He  was 
thoroughly  convinced  that  he  could  not  have 
lived  the  virtuous  life  he  had  led  since  his  con- 
version if  it  had  not  been  for  the  special  graces 
that  God  had  bestowed  on  him.  He  noticed  also 
that  the  heroism  of  his  companions  was  not  so 
much  due  to  the  perfection  of  their  natural  char- 
acters as  to  the  copious  help  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Sanctifier.  He  understood  that  such  helps 
could  be  expected  in  the  case  of  those  only 
whom  the  Lord  chose  and  invited  to  so  lofty  a 
height  of  perfection.  Thus  Christ  while  on 
earth  had  not  called  all  His  disciples  to  become 
His  Apostles,  but  He  had  selected  and  invited 
each  of  these  singly.  The  Society  of  Jesus  is  an 
apostolic  body,  and  the  calling  of  its  members 
must  come  from  God.  Therefore  St.  Ignatius 
looked  first  of  all  in  new  applicants  for  clear 
signs  of  a  Divine  vocation ;  and  he  laid  down 
the  rule  that  his  followers  should  never  try  to 
induce  any  person  to  become  a  Jesuit.  The  call 
must  come  from  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

31.  A  person  is  known  to  have  a  true  vocation 
to  enter  a  particular  career  in  life  if  he  feels 
sincerely  convinced,  as  far  as  he  can  judge  with 
God's  grace,  that  such  a  career  is  the  best  for 
him  to  attain  the  end  for  which  God  placed  him 


22  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

on  earth,  and  he  is  found  fit  by  his  talents, 
habits  and  circumstances,  to  enter  on  that  career 
with  a  fair  prospect  of  succeeding  in  the  same. 
The  first  point  therefore  in  receiving  appHcants 
for  the  Society  is  to  examine  whether  they  pos- 
sess these  signs  of  vocation.  Those  therefore 
must  be  refused  admission  who  wish  to  enter  for 
worldly  motives,  for  instance  of  respectability, 
comfort  or  the  advantages  of  a  higher  educa- 
tion; those  also  who  are  addicted  to  bad  habits 
which  would  disqualify  them  from  attaining  the 
required  sanctity  and  from  giving  proper  edifi- 
cation ;  those  who  are  bound  by  prior  obligations 
to  remain  in  the  world,  for  instance  because 
their  parents  greatly  need  their  help ;  those  who 
are  wanting  in  either  health  or  talent  needed  to 
perform  the  ministry  expected  of  them ;  and 
all  who  have  ever  worn  the  habit  of  any  other 
religious  congregation,  who  therefore  had  bet- 
ter abide  by  their  first  love. 

32.  The  young  man  who  is  admitted  as  a  can- 
didate is  supposed  (unless  he  is  to  be  merely  a 
lay-brother)  to  have  gone  through  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  studies  of  the  classical  high-school  and 
college.  He  is  not  allowed  to  contract  any  ob- 
ligation by  vow  till  he  has  passed  two  full  years 
in  the  novitiate,  spending  his  time  in  religious 
exercises  and  manual  labor,  which  will  humble 
the  natural  pride  of  the  human  heart.  Like  the 
first  Jesuits,  he  must  perform  for  thirty  succes- 


The  Constitution  of  the  Society       23 

sive  days,  in  absolute  silence  and  solitude,  the 
Spiritual  Exercises  which  St.  Ignatius  had  gone 
through  in  the  grotto  of  Manresa.  He  is  fully 
instructed  in  all  that  belongs  to  the  life  of  a 
Jesuit,  daily  trained  in  the  observance  of  the 
rules,  more  severely  tried  in  the  practice  of  hu- 
mility, mortification  and  obedience  than  he  is 
ever  apt  to  be  in  after  life.  For  the  Society 
v^ants  to  find  out  v^hat  stuff  he  is  made  of  be- 
fore receiving  him  among  her  sons,  and  she 
gives  him  every  opportunity  of  making  trial  of 
his  nev^  career  before  he  binds  himself  to  abide 
in  it  for  life. 

33.  If  at  the  end  of  the  two  years  of  novitiate 
both  parties  are  satisfied,  he  is  allowed  to  pro- 
nounce the  vows  of  perpetual  poverty,  chastity 
and  obedience.  By  the  vow  of  poverty  he  parts 
with  his  former  possessions,  which  he  may  dis- 
tribute at  his  own  free  choice,  either  then  or 
when  the  superiors  will  appoint;  and  he  prom- 
ises henceforth  to  dispose  of  nothing  as  his 
own,  but  only  with  the  permission  of  those  in 
authority.  By  the  vow  of  chastity  he  promises 
to  God  a  faithful  observance  of  the  sixth  and 
ninth  Commandments,  and  moreover  ever  to  re- 
main a  celibate  so  as  to  live  for  God  alone. 
By  the  vow  of  obedience  he  renounces  the  doing 
of  his  own  will,  submitting  himself  to  be  di- 
rected by  his  superiors  in  all  that  is  not  sin. 

34.  The   "Junior    Scholastic,"   as   he   is   now 


24  Who  Are  the  Jesiiitsf 

called,  spends  the  next  two  years  in  the  study 
of  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics,  English  litera- 
ture and  normal-school  work,  preparing  to  teach 
in  academies  and  colleges.  The  three  following 
years  are  devoted  to  the  study  of  Philosophy, 
Mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences.  After 
these  seven  years  of  self-improvement,  the 
scholastic  is  sent  to  teach  in  one  of  the  Jesuit 
colleges,  where,  although  so  proficient  now  in 
knowledge,  he  works  for  four  or  five  years  un- 
der the  direction  and  supervision  of  an  experi- 
enced Father,  who  is  the  Principal  or  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

V^^5.  Thus  the  Jesuit  is  trained  to  be  a  learned 
and  able  college  man,  and  this  may  be  his  spe- 
cialty during  the  greater  part  of  his  life.  But 
he  is  not  yet  ready  to  specialize.  He  must  first 
become  a  theologian  and  a  priest.  For  that  pur- 
pose he  is  sent  to  study  Theology,  Scripture, 
History  and  Canon  Law  in  a  four  years'  course, 
where  he  attends  the  lectures  of  the  ablest  and 
most  learned  professors  of  the  whole  Jesuit 
Society. 

36.  At  the  time  of  his  ordination  to  the  priest- 
hood he  has  been  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  years 
in  the  Society,  during  which  he  has  lived  a  life 
of  separation  from  the  world,  of  prayer,  morti- 
fication and  intense  application  to  study  and 
college  work.  Every  year  he  has  repeated  the 
Spiritual   Exercises    for   eight   days,   and   twice 


The  Constitution  of  the  Society       25 

each  year  he  has  renewed  his  fervor  by  a  triduum 
of  silence  and  meditation.  Every  day  of  those 
many  years  he  has  risen  at  a  fixed  early  hour, 
spent  an  hour  in  meditation,  assisted  at  Holy 
Mass,  usually  receiving  at  it  Holy  Communion, 
examined  his  conscience  at  noon  and  night,  re- 
cited the  beads,  performed  spiritual  reading  and 
practiced  various  other  devotions. 

37.  It  would  seem  that  he  has  now  been  thor- 
oughly prepared  for  any  function  that  may  be  im- 
posed upon  him.  Yet  the  Society  requires  him 
to  go  through  a  crowning  year  of  training,  during 
which  he  returns  to  the  novitiate,  studies  the 
Constitution  and  the  higher  paths  of  the  spir- 
itual life,  is  applied  to  humble  manual  labor  to 
renovate  his  lowliness  of  spirit,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ's  thirty  years  of  private  life ; 
and  he  performs  once  more  the  thirty  days  re- 
treat, or  Spiritual  Exercises. 

38.  After  all  this  has  been  satisfactorily  ac- 
complished, being  then  a  man  of  thirty-three 
years  or  more,  he  is  allowed  to  pronounce  his 
last  and  solemn  vows  by  which  he  becomes  a 
Professed  Father,  which  is  the  highest  grade  in 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  Professed  Father  is 
capable  of  being  elected  or  appointed  to  any 
office  in  the  religious  body,  from  which  he  can- 
not be  separated  by  any  dispensation  of  vows. 
But  he  enjoys  no  exemption  from  the  common 
life;  he  may  be  kept  teaching  in  the  class-room 


26  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

or  employed  in  any  humble  duties  of  the  sacred 
ministry  all  his  life.  To  keep  him  from  any 
ambition  of  dignities  he  is  obliged  to  take  spe- 
cial vows  by  which  he  promises  to  God  that  he 
will  never  do  anything  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining any  office  of  superiorship  in  the  Society, 
nor  out  of  the  Society  any  prelacy  or  office  of 
dignity  whatever,  and  to  make  known  to  su- 
periors any  one  of  his  brethren  who  should  be 
guilty  of  such  ambition. 

The  entire  subject  of  the  training  of  Jesuit 
professors  and  their  manner  of  teaching  is 
treated  in  Father  Hughes'  volume  entitled 
"Loyola  and  The  Educational  System  of  the 
Jesuits,"  in  Scribner's  series  of  ''The  Great  Ed- 
ucators," edited  by  Nicholas  Murray  Butler. 

39.  The  solemn  vows  of  the  professed  are 
those  of  perpetual  poverty,  chastity  and  obedi- 
ence with  special  care  of  the  education  of  chil- 
dren, and  special  obedience  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  to  undertake  any  mission  he  may  im- 
pose. 

Such  then  are  the  professed  Jesuits,  formed 
according  to  the  Constitution  of  St.  Ignatius ; 
such  are  the  men  whom  the  enemies  of  God  and 
their  ignorant  dupes  consider  to  be  so  dangerous 
to  Church  and  State. 

40.  While  the  Society  strives  to  give  this  same 
training  to  all  her  students,  or  "  Scholastics," 
there  must  necessarily  be  many  cases  in  which  ill 


The  Constitution  of  the  Society       27 

health,  or  advanced  age  on  entering  reHgion,  or 
a  variety  of  other  causes  hinders  in  part  the 
lengthy  and  difficult  course  of  preparation. 
And  yet  persons  so  affected  are  usually  well 
fitted  to  perform  some  of  the  varied  labors  of 
the  Jesuit  priest.  These  constitute  a  class 
apart,  that  of  the  ''Spiritual  Coadjutors."  They 
take  simple,  instead  of  solemn,  vows,  and  are 
not  eligible  nor  can  they  vote  for  some  few  im- 
portant offices;  but  in  other  respects  there  is  no 
difference  made  between  them  and  the  pro- 
fessed. Very  many  of  them  have  been,  in  every 
age,  among  the  most  esteemed  and  renowned 
men  of  the  Order. 

41.  The  Constitution  also  provides  for  the 
admission  and  training  of  another  class  of  mem- 
bers, the  "Lay-Brothers,"  or  "Temporal  Coad- 
jutors." These  are  devout  young  men,  usually 
admitted  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  thirty 
years,  who  do  not  aspire  to  the  priesthood,  but 
are  willing  to  cooperate  with  the  priests  by 
spending  their  lives  in  humble  services  about 
the  house,  and  in  retirement  and  frequent 
prayer.  They  perform  the  retreat  of  thirty  days 
in  their  novitiate,  and  have  their  yearly  eight 
days^  retreat,  their  triduums  of  recollection, 
daily  meditations,  Mass,  examinations  of  con- 
science, etc.,  the  same  as  the  Scholastics.  Very 
many  of  this  degree  have  attained  to  the  highest 
virtue,  and  one  of  them,  Alphonsus  Rodriguez, 


28  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

is  honored  by  the  Church  among  the  canonized 
Saints. 

42.  The  Society  is  governed  by  a  Father  Gen- 
eral, who  resides  in  Rome.  He  has  five  Assist- 
ants, who  attend  to  the  interests  of  the  ItaHan, 
German,  French,  Spanish  and  EngHsh  prov- 
inces respectively.  These  officials  are  elected  by 
the  General  Congregation,  which  consists  of  the 
Fathers  Provincials  and  two  delegates  from 
each  province.  The  General  alone  is  elected 
for  life.  He  has  the  appointment  of  all  the 
provincials,  rectors  of  colleges  and  lower  su- 
periors, thus  securing  everywhere  unity  of  spirit 
and  of  action. 

43.  All  authority  throughout  the  Society  is 
exercised  in  a  very  paternal  manner,  arbitrari- 
ness and  needless  harshness  would  not  be  tol- 
erated by  higher  superiors.  All  subjects  are  ex- 
pected to  be  perfectly  frank  and  open  with  their 
superiors,  and  each  one  enjoys  at  all  times  free 
communication  with  the  highest  powers.  But 
on  the  other  hand  the  slightest  direction  of  any- 
one in  authority  is  to  be  promptly  and  cheerfully 
obeyed ;  and  obedience  is  more  earnestly  incul- 
cated and  insisted  on  than  any  other  virtue  "in 
all  things  in  which  evidently  there  appears  no 
sin,"  as  the  rule  expresses  it.  For  the  leading 
idea  of  the  Society  is  the  imitation  of  Christ, 
who  during  His  thirty  years  of  private  life  was 
subject  to  His  parents,  and  during  all  .His  life 


The  Constitution  of  the  Society       29 

did  not  do  His  own  will  but  that  of  His  Father 
who  sent  Him.  Infinite  Wisdom  stooped  down 
with  infinite  condescension  to  obey  His  crea- 
tures, and  the  ambition  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
is  above  all  things  to  form  men  of  the  highest 
learning  and  the  deepest  humility. 


CHAPTER  V 

INCREASING    INFLUENCE    OF    THE    JESUITS 

44.  We  have  seen  above  that  a  General  Coun- 
cil of  the  Church  had  been  summoned  to  stem 
the  ever-swelling  torrent  of  the  Reformation, 
and  to  make  such  reforms  within  the  true  fold 
as  the  times  had  made  imperative.  The  Coun- 
cil assembled  at  Trent  in  1545.  Of  the  Jesuits, 
Laynez  and  Salmeron  attended  it  as  theologians 
of  Pope  Paul  III,  Claude  Le  Jay  as  representa- 
tive of  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Augsburg. 
Theirs  was  a  delicate  task:  mere  priests,  they 
were  to  discourse  before  bishops,  archbishops 
and  cardinals  and  eighty  of  the  most  learned 
theologians  of  the  world;  they  were  to  treat  of 
definitions  of  doctrines  and  reformation  of 
abuses  in  the  Church.  Their  learning,  modesty 
and  holiness  combined  overcame  all  difficulties. 
Laynez,  speaking  on  the  Holy  Eucharist,  quoted 
from  thirty-six  Fathers  or  Doctors  of  the 
Church,  and  declared  that  he  had  read  all  the 
works  of  each  of  them.  His  conclusions  were 
unanimously  accepted  by  the  Council ;  he  was 
allowed  to  speak  on  all  occasions  for  an  unlim- 
ited time,  which  sometimes  proved  to  be  three 

30 


Increasing  Influence  of  the  Jesuits     31 

hours,  while  all  others  were  usually  restricted 
to  one  hour  only.  Salmeron  and  Le  Jay's  dis- 
courses on  Grace  excited  general  admiration. 
Meanwhile  all  three  acted  as  if  they  were  the 
most  insignificant  men  in  the  assembly,  appear- 
ing in  well  worn  cassocks,  and  faithfully  com- 
plying with  the  instructions  which  St.  Ignatius 
had  given  them,  namely :  ''Outside  the  Council 
omit  no  opportunity  of  serving  your  neighbor; 
seek  for  opportunities  to  hear  confessions,  to 
preach,  to  give  the  Exercises ;  instruct  children 
and  visit  the  poor  in  the  hospitals,  so  that  by 
works  of  humility  and  charity  you  may  draw 
down  the  Holy  Spirit  with  greater  abundance  on 
the  Fathers  of  the  Council." 

45.  But  of  course  what  endeared  the  Jesuits 
to  the  Catholics  made  them  odious  to  the  Re- 
formers, and  the  apostate  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi,  the 
notorious  false  historian  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
wrote  to  a  friend: — "Nothing  is  more  essential 
than  to  ruin  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits ;  in  ruin- 
ing them  we  shall  ruin  Rome;  and  if  Rome  is 
lost  religion  will  reform  itself."  (The  Jesuits, 
their  Foundation  and  History,  by  B.  N.  Vol.  i, 
p.  64.)  No  wonder  then  that  many  false 
charges  have  been  laid  to  the  Society  of  Jesus 
for  the  express  purpose  of  lessening  its  influence. 

46.  Meanwhile  St.  Ignatius  in  Rome  was 
starting  various  institutions  for  the  good  of 
souls ;  thus   he   founded   the  monastery  of   St. 


32  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

Martha  for  women  reclaimed  from  a  life  of 
sin,  and  two  schools  for  orphan  children,  which 
existed  till  lately  in  care  of  the  Brothers  of  St. 
Jerome  ^milian.  He  founded  also  the  Roman 
and  the  German  colleges,  both  of  which  have 
been  ever  since  among  the  most  renowned  and 
fruitful  educational  establishments  in  the  world. 
Among  the  professors  of  the  former  were 
Suarez,  Vasquez,  Ledesma,  Bellarmine,  Cor- 
nelius a  Lapide,  the  older  and  the  younger  Sec- 
chi,  Perrone,  Liberatore,  Mazella,  De  Augus- 
tinis,  etc.,  and  among  its  pupils  Popes  Innocent 
X,  Clement  IX,  Clement  X,  Innocent  XII, 
Clement  XI,  Innocent  XIII,  Clement  XII  and 
Leo  XIII,  and  the  Saints  Aloysius,  Camillus  of 
Lellis  and  John  Berchmans. 

47.  The  German  College  was  a  most  wise  pro- 
vision to  supply  Germany  with  learned  and  holy 
priests,  who  should  repair  the  sad  havoc  wrought 
there  by  the  Reformers.  It  was  begun  in  1553, 
and  two  centuries  later  it  counted  already  among 
its  alumni  24  cardinals,  one  Pope,  6  Electors  of 
the  Holy  Empire,  19  princes,  21  archbishops, 
221  bishops  and  countless  priests  and  martyrs, 
and  the  excellent  work  has  been  going  on  to  the 
present  day  with  undiminished  success. 

48.  The  work  that  had  been  begun  in  Spain 
and  Portugal  by  Blessed  Peter  Favre  and  Simon 
Rodriguez  had  been  proceeding  steadily  for  sev- 
eral years,  bringing  about  numerous  conversions 


Increasing  Influence  of  the  Jesuits     33 

to  better  lives  and  accessions  of  desirable  can- 
didates to  the  novitiate,  when  an  event  occurred 
which  gave  a  new  and  powerful  impulse  to  the 
progress  of  the  Society  in  those  countries.  The 
celebrated  Duke  of  Gandia,  Francis  Borgia,  who 
had  governed  Catalonia  for  some  years  as  Vice- 
roy for  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  after  the  death 
of  his  accomplished  consort  resolved  to  aban- 
don all  earthly  grandeur  and  become  an  humble 
member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Some  years 
before,  deputed  to  accompany  the  remains  of 
the  Empress  Isabella  to  their  final  resting  place, 
and  beholding  in  the  open  casket  the  disfigured 
corpse  of  the  most  admired  lady  of  the  land,  he 
had  seen  the  vanity  of  human  greatness,  and 
had  resolved  thenceforth  to  live  for  higher  as- 
pirations. He  made  the  Spiritual  Exercises  un- 
der Father  Favre's  directions,  and  then  applied 
for  admission  as  a  novice.  Some  years  had 
still  to  be  spent  in  properly  settling  his  chil- 
dren in  the  world;  then,  in  1550,  he  was  admit- 
ted into  the  Order.  He  employed  the  great  in- 
fluence he  possessed  in  extending  the  Society 
throughout  Spain,  and  he  founded  in  his  ducal 
town  of  Gandia  a  large  college  so  richly  en- 
dowed that  all  its  students  were  to  receive  ever 
after  a  liberal  education  without  payment  of 
tuition. 

49.  This  was  the  plan  adopted  by  the  Jesuits, 
and   it  was  gradually   extended   wherever  they 


34  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

secured  a  firm  footing;  namely,  to  establish 
classical  colleges  endowed  by  rich  benefactors, 
in  which  education  was  entirely  free  of  expense. 
The  American  people  are  apt  to  imagine  that 
free  schools  are  a  modern  improvement.  It  is 
a  great  mistake.  All  through  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  in  modern  times  up  to  the  abolition  of  the 
Jesuits  and  the  confiscation  of  their  colleges  in 
1773,  education  was  generally  imparted  gratis 
both  in  Europe  and  in  missionary  countries. 
The  Jesuits  were  not  the  originators  of  free 
education,  which  was  a  very  ancient  Catholic 
practice,  but  they  were  uncommonly  active  and 
successful  in  establishing  a  very  large  number 
of  new  colleges,  and  giving  new  efficiency  to 
older  colleges  and  universities  of  which  they  as- 
sumed the  charge. 

50.  Portugal  surpassed  all  other  States  in  the 
enthusiasm  wherewith  she  welcomed  the  newly 
born  Society.  In  1542  a  college  was  established 
and  endowed  at  Lisbon  and  another  at  Co'imbra. 
Progress  was  so  rapid  that  in  1546  St.  Ignatius 
erected  Portugal  into  a  province  of  his  Order. 
A  few  years  later  Coimbra  contained  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  Jesuits ;  it  was  supplying  mis- 
sionaries for  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  in- 
structors for  other  colleges  and  new  foundations 
for  other  cities. 

51.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  Portuguese  in 
favor  of  the  Jesuits  was  fostered  by  the  good 


Increasing  Influence  of  the  Jesuits     35 

tidings,  constantly  coming  from  the  East  Indies, 
of  the  glorious  achievements  and  spiritual  con- 
quests of  St.  Francis  Xavier  among  both  Chris- 
tians and  pagans,  of  the  miracles  he  was  work- 
ing, healing  the  sick,  raising  the  dead  to  life, 
while  a  large  number  of  his  religious  brethren 
were  following  up  and  enlarging  on  the  work 
which  he  had  so  nobly  begun.  Many  of  the 
missionaries  were  like  bright  stars  in  the  galaxy 
of  Portugal ;  but  all  pale  in  the  light  of  the 
great  apostle  and  thaumaturgus  of  modern 
times,  St.  Francis  Xavier. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    JESUITS    AND    THE    REFORMATION     IN     GER- 
MANY 

52.  It  has  been  frequently  remarked  that  St. 
Ignatius  appears  to  have  been  raised  up  by 
Divine  Providence  to  stem  the  torrent  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation  when  it  threatened  to 
overwhelm  the  Catholic  Church.  The  energy, 
the  ability  and  the  success  with  which  his  fol- 
lowers fulfilled  that  mission  are  certainly  very 
conspicuous.  The  principal  field  of  the  reli- 
gious battle  was  for  many  years  the  collection  of 
States  which  is  generally  called  Germany. 
Catholicity  there  was  in  a  most  deplorable  con- 
dition. The  powerful  assaults  of  Luther,  the 
seductive  eloquence  of  Melanchthon,  the  glowing 
harangues  of  Bucer,  Carlstadt  and  Bullinger 
had  severed  large  portions  from  the  Church,  and 
infused  the  poison  of  false  doctrines  and  disaffec- 
tion throughout  the  remainder  of  those  prov- 
inces. According  to  the  Protestant  historian 
Ranke,  the  present  Empire  of  Austria,  which  is 
almost  totally  Catholic,  then  contained  only  one 
Catholic  to  ten  Protestants  among  the  people; 
and  against  ten   Protestant   theologians   of   re- 

36 


The  Reformation  in  Germany         37 

nown  scarcely  one  Catholic  was  found  to  defend 
the  ancient  faith.  Even  the  archbishop  of 
Cologne  had  apostatized. 

53.  Such  was  the  religious  desolation  of  Ger- 
many that,  when  the  Jesuit  Father  Peter  Can- 
isius  came  to  Vienna  in  1551,  more  than  twenty 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  university  had  fur- 
nished one  worthy  candidate  for  the  priesthood. 
When  Father  Le  Jay,  who  had  accomplished 
wonders  in  improving  the  morals  of  the  Ger- 
man clergy,  died  in  1552,  the  immense  influ- 
ence he  possessed  was  inherited  by  Blessed 
Canisius,  who  had  become  favorably  known  by 
his  conspicuous  services  rendered  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent,  and  by  his  remarkable  ability  in  the 
presidency  of  the  University  of  Ingolstadt. 
From  Ingolstadt  he  was,  at  the  request  of  Fer- 
dinand, King  of  the  Romans,  transferred  to 
Vienna.  In  both  places  he  shone  by  his  learn- 
ing and  his  eloquence,  exhibited  especially  in 
controversies  with  the  Reformers.  He  com- 
posed a  Catechism  of  Catholic  doctrine  which 
became  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the 
controversialists ;  it  has  been  approved  by  Popes 
and  bishops,  translated  into  almost  all  European 
languages,  and  has  gone  through  five  hundred 
editions. 

54.  The  success  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Univer- 
sities of  Ingolstadt  and  Vienna  had  been  so  grat- 
ifying to  the  bishops  and  the  princes  that  the 


38  Who  Are  the  Jesnitsf 

archbishop  of  Augsburg  gave  over  to  them  his 
University  of  DilHngen.  Happily  in  those  times 
the  language  of  the  educated  was  everywhere  the 
Latin,  and  during  a  long  period  the  professors 
who  lectured  in  the  German  Universities  were 
Jesuits  from  various  Latin  countries.  Ranke, 
the  Protestant  historian,  says  of  them:  'They 
were  natives  of  Spain,  Italy  and  the  Netherlands. 
For  a  long  time  even  the  name  of  their  Society 
was  unknown,  and  they  were  styled  the  Spanish 
priests.  They  filled  the  chairs  of  the  universi- 
ties, and  there  met  with  disciples  willing  to  em- 
brace their  faith.  Germany  has  no  part  in 
them;  their  doctrines,  their  constitutions,  had 
been  completed  and  reduced  to  form  before  they 
appeared  in  our  midst.  .  .  .  They  have  de- 
feated us  on  our  own  soil,  and  wrested  from 
us  a  share  of  our  fatherland."  (History  of 
the  Papacy,  IH,  p.  44.) 

55.  The  work  done  by  the  Jesuits  in  Ger- 
many was  so  brilliant  that  it  is  becoming  to  let 
the  pens  of  aliens  describe  it.  The  same  Ranke 
writes:  "In  1552  the  Jesuits  had  no  residence 
in  Germany;  in  1566  we  encounter  them  in  Ba- 
varia, among  the  Tyrolese,  in  Franconia  and 
Suabia;  they  have  spread  over  a  great  part  of 
the  provinces  of  the  Rhine  and  Austria;  they 
have  penetrated  into  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and 
Moravia.  The  effects  of  their  presence  are 
soon   perceptible.     In    1561,   the   Papal    Nuncio 


The  Reformation  in  Germany         39 

informs  us,  that  they  had  made  many  conver- 
sions, and  rendered  infinite  service  to  the  Holy 
See.  This  was  the  first  durable  anti-Protes- 
tant impulse  communicated  to  Germany."  (His- 
tory of  the  Papacy,  HI,  p.  39.)  The  sceptical 
Montaigne  remarked :  ''I  am  of  opinion  that 
there  never  appeared  among  us  a  body  of  men 
who  have  held  so  high  a  rank,  or  effected  so 
much.  If  they  do  not  relax  in  the  prosecution 
of  their  plans,  they  will  very  shortly  gain  a 
dominant  position  throughout  Christendom. 
Their  Order  is  a  seminary  of  men  illustrious  in 
every  career,  and  from  them  the  heretics  of  our 
times  have  more  to  fear  than  from  any  other 
members  of  the  Church."  {Voyages  de 
Montaigne  en  Allemagne  et  en  Italie,  p.  666.) 
56.  That  the  fear  they  inspired  into  heretics 
was  due  to  the  virtues  of  the  Jesuits,  and  how 
this  effect  was  produced  is  thus  explained  by 
the  same  unimpeachable  authority,  Ranke,  who 
says:  |*Tt  must  be  confessed  that  they  lacked 
neither  zeal  nor  prudence.  You  will  see  them 
extending  their  labors  successively  in  all  the 
places  in  the  vicinity  of  their  establishments,  se- 
ducing and  gaining  over  the  masses.  Their 
churches  are  always  thronged.  Is  there  any- 
where found  a  Lutheran  skilled  in  his  Bible, 
who  by  his  teachings  acquires  some  influence 
over  his  neighbors,  they  use  every  means  to  ob- 
tain his  conversion ;  and  so  habituated  are  they 


40  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

to  polemic  discussions  that  they  rarely  fail. 
They  devote  themselves  to  the  offices  of  charity, 
they  heal  the  sick,  they  reconcile  enemies,  and 
strengthen  in  their  faith,  by  the  contraction  of 
new  obligations,  those  whom  they  have  suc- 
ceeded in  reclaiming."     (Ibid.  p.  49.) 

57.  Poland  was  included  in  the  sphere  of 
Jesuit  zeal.  Ranke  states:  "In  Poland  the 
Jesuit  schools  were  frequented  principally  by 
the  young  nobility,  who  themselves  undertook 
to  spread  the  faith  among  the  lower  orders  in 
cities  yet  remaining  true  to  the  Protestant  cause. 
But  Catholicity  exerted  its  chief  influence  on  the 
higher  classes.  Four  hundred  students,  all  of 
the  nobility,  filled  the  college  of  Pultovsk.  The 
tendency  of  the  times,  the  teaching  of  the 
Jesuits,  the  newly  aroused  zeal  of  the  clergy; 
all  these  concurred  to  dispose  the  Polish  nobility 
to  reenter  the  Church."  (History  of  the  Papacy, 
IV,  p.  13.)  A  friendly  pen,  that  of  the  Abbe 
Maynard,  in  his  "Studies  and  Teachings  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus"  thus  writes  about  Blessed 
Peter  Canisius:  "His  was  the  guiding  spirit  of 
all  the  diets,  he  is  charged  with  various  nuncia- 
tures, carries  on  the  warfare  with  the  heretics, 
and  replies  to  the  Centuriators  of  Magdeburg. 
The  slumbering  faith  of  princes  and  clergy  is 
awakened,  and  the  Jesuits  are  everywhere  called 
for.  To  respond  to  these  demands  they  seem 
gifted  with  ubiquity.     They  are  laboring  every- 


The  Reformation  in  Germany         41 

where,  and  everywhere  are  their  labors  success- 
ful"   (p.  98). 

58.  It  must  not  be  supposed  however  that  the 
reclaiming  of  the  German  States  to  the  Church 
was  achieved  by  the  direct  labors  of  the  Jesuits 
alone.  In  their  colleges  and  universities  they-^ 
formed  the  youths  to  learning  and  virtue ;  and 
it  was  the  pupils  trained  by  them  that  furnished 
in  the  course  of  time  an  army  of  secular  priests, 
religious  of  various  Orders,  princes  and  magis- 
trates, writers  and  speakers,  leaders  of  men 
generally ;  and  it  was  these  who  acted  with  the 
Jesuits  in  their  influence  on  the  people  at  large 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land, 
and  built  up  a  vigorous  Catholic  population. 
"  To  form  virtuous,  learned,  able,  fully  reliable 
leaders  of  men  is  the  purpose  for  which  the 
Jesuits  have  made  education  one  of  their  princi- 
pal fields  of  labor.  That  also  is  the  chief  reason 
why  the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church  single 
out  the  Jesuits  as  their  first  victims  whenever 
they  attack  religion  by  hostile  legislation.  / 

But  opposition  to  the  Jesuits  will  be  more 
easily  understood  when  we  shall  have  seen  what 
they  did  in  other  lands  than  Germany. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  JESUITS   IN    CATHOLIC    LANDS 

59.  While  Canisius  was  successfully  wag- 
ing the  spiritual  warfare  in  Germany,  St.  Ig- 
natius in  Rome  was  approaching  the  end  of  his 
earthly  career.  By  nature  of  a  vigorous  and 
robust  constitution,  he  had  become  enfeebled  by 
austerities  and  toil,  rather  than  by  age ;  but 
though  failing  in  bodily  strength,  no  man  had  a 
bearing  so  noble  and  dignified,  or  was  so  popu- 
lar with  persons  of  every  rank  and  most  oppo- 
site characters.  While  directing  by  letter  the 
labors  of  his  subjects  in  other  lands,  and  super- 
vising the  training  of  the  young  recruits  at  home 
and  abroad,  he  preached  often  to  various  kinds 
of  audiences,  but  his  favorite  occupation  was 
that  of  teaching  catechism  to  children.  Though 
his  knowledge  of  the  Italian  language  was  im- 
perfect, he  made  a  deep  impression  on  his  hear- 
ers, and  large  numbers  of  these  flocked  to  him 
in  private  for  advice  in  matters  of  greatest  mo- 
ment. In  the  summer  of  1556  his  weakness  in- 
creased rapidly,  but  he  spoke  little  of  his  suffer- 
ings; after  preparing  himself  quietly  for  death 
and  receiving  Holy  Communion  with  angelic  de- 

42 


The  Jesuits  in  Catholic  Lands         43 

votion,  before  his  companions  realized  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation,  he  quietly  expired, 
on  July  31,  the  day  on  which  occurs  now  all 
over  the  Catholic  Church  the  annual  celebration 
of  his  feast.  Who  can  convince  himself  that 
such  a  man  can  have  been  a  danger  to  mankind 
and  the  founder  of  a  detestable  Society? 

60.  Father  Laynez  was  elected  as  his  succes- 
sor. He  had  the  consolation  of  seeing  the  So- 
ciety continue  its  successful  labors  in  Italy, 
Spain  and  Portugal,  though  occasional  attacks 
of  envious  men  would  now  and  then  cause  an- 
noyance by  false  accusations.  Even  Pope  Paul 
IV  had  been  influenced  to  interfere  somewhat 
in  the  labors  of  the  Jesuits ;  but  very  soon  his 
successor  Pius  IV  loaded  them  with  tokens  of 
his  confidence  and  kindness.  Among  other 
favors  he  gave  them  perfect  liberty  to  found 
new  houses,  and  also  the  right  to  give  the  de- 
grees of  Bachelor,  Master  of  Arts  and  Doctor 
to  the  pupils  of  their  colleges. 

But  their  entrance  upon  the  soil  of  France 
met  with  serious  and  prolonged  opposition;  and 
yet  France  needed  them  badly.  The  heresy  of 
Calvin  was  spreading  its  poison  there  through  a 
country  convulsed  by  civil  war,  the  Huguenots 
striving  to  tear  the  whole  land  away  from  the 
Catholic  Church.  The  Parliament  of  Paris 
might  have  been  expected  to  welcome  such  ef- 
fective auxiliaries  to  its  cause,   but  Calvin  had 


44  Who  Arc  the  Jesuits? 

secret  partisans  among  its  members.  Laynez 
determined  to  go  to  France  himself,  where,  be- 
fore the  conference  at  Poissy  between  the 
Huguenot  leaders  and  the  Catholic  theologians, 
he  defended  the  Church  so  ably  as  to  gain  the 
confidence  and  admiration  of  all  the  most  in- 
fluential bishops  and  cardinals.  The  result  was 
that,  after  a  dozen  years'  opposition,  the  Jesuits 
were  at  last  allowed,  in  1562,  to  found  a  college 
in  Paris. 

61.  But  their  difficulties  were  not  at  an  end; 
their  teaching  was  gratuitous,  while  the  uni- 
versity students  were  required  to  pay  a  fee ; 
hence  constant  opposition.  But  they  had  among 
them  members  of  such  conspicuous  merit  that 
a  few  years  later  their  establishment  in  Paris 
was  the  most  flourishing  and  famous  of  all  their 
colleges.  They  owed  much  of  this  success  to 
Father  Auger,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  orators 
of  the  time,  and  as  holy  as  he  was  eloquent. 
He  had  entered  the  Society  as  a  mere  boy ;  and 
a  troublesome,  restless  boy  he  was,  trying  the 
patience  of  St.  Ignatius  as  young  Ribadineira 
had  done  some  years  before ;  but  he  had  in  him 
the  making  of  a  great  man,  as  he  really  be- 
came. He  had  for  long  years  confronted  the 
heretical  preachers  in  Languedoc,  Auvergne  and 
Dauphine,  and  foiled  their  attacks  on  the  an- 
cient faith.  Once  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the   famous  Calvinist  leader,  the  Baron  des 


The  Jesuits  in  Catholic  Lands         45 

Ardrets,  and  was  by  him  condemned  to  death ; 
but  he  spoke  so  eloquently  at  the  place  of  exe- 
cution that  the  very  ministers  of  error  asked 
that  his  death  might  be  delayed.  The  next  day 
he  was  rescued  by  Catholic  troops.  When  the 
plague  broke  out  at  Lyons,  Auger  was  indefati- 
gable in  assisting  the  sick  and  dying,  and  inspired 
such  admiration  by  his  fearless  devotedness  that 
the  city  in  gratitude  offered  him  the  College  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  which  he  accepted  for  the  So- 
ciety. 

62.  Father  Auger  was  assisted  in  his  labors 
by  the  learned  Father  Possevinus,  who  evangel- 
ized most  successfully  the  valleys  of  Savoy, 
where  the  new  errors  had  been  spread.  In  a 
short  time  he  converted  large  numbers,  among 
whom  were  at  least  thirty-four  Protestant 
ministers. 

Several  colleges  had  been  established  in  Italy 
and  Sicily,  and  the  Jesuits  spread  themselves 
over  those  countries,  giving  missions  and  re- 
treats, and  in  various  other  ways  assisting  the 
native  clergy.  Their  heroic  virtue  was  dis- 
played on  many  occasions ;  here  is  one  example 
of  it.  Father  Venusti  taught  a  class  at  the  Col- 
lege of  Palermo,  and  devoted  his  spare  time  to 
preaching  in  the  neighboring  villages.  He  had 
interested  himself  in  particular  in  reclaiming  a 
fallen  priest,  but  met  with  black  ingratitude. 
The  poor  man,  Ruggiero  by  name,  waylaid  the 


46  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

Father  and  stabbed  him  with  a  dagger,  then  fled. 
When  the  dying  man  was  asked  by  a  passer-by 
whether  he  knew  his  murderer,  he  answered; 
"Yes;  but,  whoever  he  is,  may  God  forgive  him 
as  I  do."  But  the  murderer  was  found  out,  and 
sought  for  by  the  Viceroy,  who  threatened 
severe  penalties  against  anyone  who  would 
shelter  the  fugitive.  He  sought  a  refuge  at  the 
Jesuit  College  of  Bivona,  where  he  was  hidden 
by  the  Fathers  for  two  days,  and  then  assisted 
to  fly  to  another  country,  where  he  did  sincere 
penance  for  his  crime. 

63.  When  Laynez  at  his  death  was  succeeded 
by  St.  Francis  Borgia,  in  1565,  the  Society  pos- 
sessed already  3,500  members  and  130  houses, 
divided  into  18  provinces.  The  same  year  saw 
the  ascent  to  the  Papal  throne  of  another  Saint, 
Pius  V.  His  uncompromising  and  enthusiastic 
zeal  for  the  service  of  God  rendered  him  pe- 
culiarly capable  of  appreciating  men  who,  like^ 
himself,  never  allowed  difliculties  or  dangers  to 
check  their  apostolic  labors. 

When  the  plague  broke  out  in  Rome,  in  1566, 
and  carried  off  thousands  of  the  people,  St. 
Francis  divided  the  city  into  districts,  and  as- 
signed them  to  his  subjects  to  attend  the  dying. 
The  Pope  in  gratitude  then  promised  him  that 
whenever  a  like  affliction  should  arise  the  post 
of  honor  and  danger  should  be  given  to  the  So- 
ciety.    Similar     exhibitions     of    heroic    charity 


The  Jesuits  in  Catholic  Lands         47 

were  witnessed  in  Southern  Spain  in  1571, 
where  the  lately  rebellious  Moors  were  the 
chief  victims.  At  Toledo,  Alcala,  Guadalaxara 
and  other  towns  the  Jesuits  turned  their  houses 
into  hospitals.  Many  of  the  Fathers  died  at 
their  post.  Father  John  Martinez  expired  while 
lying  down  among  the  patients  to  hear  their 
confessions.  In  Madrid,  in  1569,  fourteen 
Fathers  fell  victims  of  like  charity. 

64.  About  this  time  the  Jesuits  had  entered 
into  the  Netherlands,  and  established  there  some 
flourishing  colleges,  in  particular  those  of  Ma- 
lines,  Antwerp  and  Tournay;  but  all  these  were 
sacked  by  the  Calvinists. 

While  various  afflictions  were  thus  befaUing 
the  Jesuits  in  different  lands,  their  Society  was 
greatly  honored  and  consoled  by  the  advent  to 
the  Roman  novitiate,  in  1567,  of  the  youthful 
St.  Stanislaus  Kostka,  whom  the  Blessed  Virgin 
herself,  in  a  vision  at  Vienna,  had  directed  to 
become  a  Jesuit.  The  boy-saint  was  destined 
to  be  a  special  model  during  all  future  ages  for 
the  thousands  of  youths  who  were  to  flock  to 
Catholic  schools  and  colleges.  Grown  up  to 
early  boyhood  in  angelic  innocence  in  his  parents' 
home  in  Poland,  he  was  formed  to  high  sanctity 
at  the  Jesuit  College  of  Vi^enna,  where  his  virtue 
was  refined  in  the  crucible  of  persecution  at  the 
hands  of  his  tutor  and  his  elder  brother  Paul. 
There  he  had  miraculously  received  Holy  Com- 


48  Who  Ave  the  Jesuits? 

niunion  at  the  hand  of  Angels,  in  what  appeared 
to  be  a  mortal  sickness ;  he  received  from 
Mary's  hands  her  Divine  Infant  Son  into  his  lov- 
ing arms,  and  w^as  then  restored  to  perfect 
health.  He  edified  the  novitiate  by  his  cheer- 
ful but  perfect  life  for  only  ten  months,  and 
then  expired  in  the  sweetest  odor  of  sanctity. 

65.  Five  months  before  the  death  of  Stanislaus 
another  future  Saint  was  born  who  was  also  to 
be  a  bright  ornament  to  the  Society  of  Jesus 
and  a  perfect  model  for  her  students,  Aloysius 
Gonzaga.  After  a  long  contest  with  his  father 
to  be  allowed  to  renounce  his  right  of  succes- 
sion in  the  marquisate  of  Castiglione,  he  en- 
tered the  Roman  novitiate  of  the  Jesuits,  whicn 
he  adorned  with  the  brightest  virtues ;  and,  made 
perfect  in  a  short  time,  he  joyously  departed  for 
Heaven  on  the  21st  of  June,  1591. 

To  these  two  scions  of  the  nobility  Divine 
Providence  added  a  third  youthful  Saint,  a  son 
of  the  common  people,  St.  John  Berchmans. 
An  humble  flower  of  piety,  he  had  grown  up  as 
it  were  at  the  feet  of  Mary's  statue.  On  read- 
ing the  life  of  Blessed  Aloysius,  just  then  pub- 
lished, he  felt  a  strong  desire  to  follow  him,  and 
entered  the  novitiate.  There  he  was  called  by 
his  companions  *'the  cheerful  brother" ;  but  it 
was  the  alacrity  of  an  Angel.  He  is  to-day  by 
his  bright  example  drawing  countless  other 
youths  to  lead  holy  lives ;  he  is  the  special  patron 
of  the  acolytes. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MISSIONS    TO    THE     HEATHENS 

66.  While  St.  Francis  Xavier  and  his  numer- 
ous companions  were  continuing  their  zealous 
labors  to  convert  the  heathens  in  the  East,  other 
missionaries  of  the  Society  had  gone  to  evan- 
gelize the  savages  of  Brazil,  where  soon  after 
several  of  them  gained  the  palm  of  martyrdom. 
From  1549  the  work  of  those  missions  had  been 
gradually  widening  its  circle,  and  numerous  souls 
had  been  gained  to  Christ,  when,  in  1570, 
Father  Ignatius  Azevedo  undertook  to  give  a 
strong  impulse  to  the  work  by  going  back  to 
Spain  to  gather  more  recruits.  He  collected 
sixty-eight  companions,  many  of  them  youthful 
novices,  and  with  thirty-nine  of  them  embarked 
on  a  vessel  called  the  St.  James.  The  ship 
was  attacked  by  the  fierce  Calvinist  pirate 
Jacques  Sourie,  who  meant  to  pillage  the  vessel 
and  massacre  the  missionaries.  Blessed  Aze- 
vedo was  butchered  at  once.  Life  and  liberty 
were  offered  to  the  others  if  they  would  re- 
nounce the  faith,  but  all  were  glad  to  die  for 
Christ ;  only  the  cook  was  spared,  that  he  might 
serve    the    pirates.     In    his    stead    a    youthful 

49 


50  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

nephew  of  the  slaughtered  captain  put  on  the 
blood-stained  cassock  of  a  dead  missionary,  and 
shared  the  martyr's  crown.  That  day  St. 
Theresa  in  Spain  had  a  vision  of  the  glorified 
band.  The  feast  of  these  Blessed  Martyrs  is 
kept  by  the  Church  on  the  15th  of  July,  the  an- 
niversary of  their  heroic  death. 

The  following  year  thirty  other  Jesuits  were 
similarly  massacred  by  the  Calvinist  pirate  Cap- 
devielle.  At  last  Father  Tolosa  with  thirteen 
companions  reached  Brazil  in  safety.  This  vast 
field  of  labor  was  cultivated  by  the  Jesuits  for 
two  centuries  with  immense  toil  and  the  sacrifice 
of  numerous  lives,  but  also  with  the  most  con- 
soling fruit.  While  some  evangelized  the  white 
settlers  and  the  Indian  villages  along  the  coast, 
other  missionaries  penetrated  into  the  forests 
and  gradually  converted  entire  tribes  of  the  sav- 
ages, whom  they  induced  to  form  colonies,  called 
"Reductions,"  where  piety  and  industry  were 
happily  blended  under  the  supervision  of  the 
provident  men  of  God.  The  most  renowned  of 
the  Brazilian  missionaries  was  the  venerable 
Father  Anchieta,  who  composed  a  dictionary,  a 
grammar  and  various  religious  works  in  the 
language  of  the  converts.  He  spent  many  years, 
partly  in  organizing  the  reductions,  partly  in 
traveling  alone  tlirough  the  forests,  with  no 
other  baggage  than  his  breviary  and  the  neces- 
sary articles  for  saying  Mass,  no  weapon  save 


Missions  to  the  Heathens  51 

his  crucifix.  Sometimes  for  months  together  he 
would  be  the  prisoner  of  some  wild  tribe,  treated 
cruelly  till  he  converted  the  savages.  The  Lord 
glorified  his  charity  by  countless  miracles ;  for 
he  cured  the  sick,  raised  the  dead  to  life,  fore- 
told the  future,  so  that  he  has  been  called  the 
Thaumaturgus  of  Brazil. 

67.  Similar  reductions,  formed  in  Paraguay, 
have  elicited  the  admiration  of  Catholic,  Prot- 
estant and  infidel  historians.  But  the  formation 
and  maintenance  of  them  required  endless  pa- 
tience, consummate  tact,  unyielding  persever- 
ance. For  the  savages  had  not  only  to  be  con- 
verted to  the  true  faith,  but  to  be  changed  in 
their  modes  of  living,  their  habits,  their  very 
characters ;  to  be  transformed  into  orderly, 
obedient,  industrious,  steady  and  faithful  citi- 
zens of  the  colony.  In  1614  there  were  119 
Jesuits  scattered  through  Paraguay,  and  two  re- 
ductions in  operation,  the  nucleus  of  what  de- 
veloped afterwards  into  a  mighty  work. 

68.  China  had  for  many  centuries  been  jeal- 
ously barred  against  foreign  influence.  It  is 
thought  to  contain  about  one  third  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  globe,  all  of  whom  were  without 
the  light  of  Christianity,  when  in  i^^2  St. 
Francis  Xavipr,  on  the  point  of  entering  the 
empire,  expired  on  the  neighboring  island  of 
Sancian.  Three  years  later  Father  Boretto  suc- 
ceeded in  entering  Canton ;  but  he  had  soon  to 


e;2  Who  Are  the  Jesuits f 

abandon  this  post  of  vantage.  For  nearly 
thirty  years  the  Jesuits  tried  in  vain  to  effect  a 
settlement,  v^^hen  at  last  Fathers  Ruggieri  and 
Ricci  obtained  leave  to  live  in  Tchao-Khing,  in 
the  province  of  Canton.  They  built  a  house 
and  chapel,  and  assuming  the  costumes  of  the 
literates,  began  to  teach  religion.  The  explana- 
tion of  the  ten  Commandments  created  special 
admiration,  so  that  the  literates  requested  them 
to  commit  their  teachings  to  writing.  With  in- 
finite pains  they  published  an  abridgment  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  in  the  Chinese  tongue. 

But  as  the  toleration  of  the  missionaries  de- 
pended altogether  upon  the  good  will  of  some 
mandarins,  they  were  soon  obliged  to  leave  Can- 
ton, and  could  only  settle  in  an  unhealthy  town, 
where  two  of  the  number  soon  expired.  Father 
Ricci  determined  to  make  his  way  to  Pekin,  and 
gain  the  protection  of  the  Emperor  himself. 
After  prolonged  efforts  and  exhausting  journeys 
he  reached  Pekin  at  last,  but  only  to  find  that 
access  to  the  monarch  was  impossible.  So  he 
went  to  Nankin  and  opened  there  a  school  of 
mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences.  His  lec- 
tures were  taken  down  in  writing,  printed  and 
scattered  through  the  land.  Then  he  began  to 
preach  religion  and  soon  formed  a  fervent  con- 
gregation of  converts. 

Encouraged  by  this  success  and  furnished  with 
letters   of    recommendation    from   the   literates, 


Missions  to  the  Heathens  53 

Ricci  set  out  again  for  Pekin,  carrying  with  him 
several  clocks  as  presents  to  the  Emperor.  On 
the  way  he  was  seized  by  a  powerful  mandarin, 
who  kept  him  six  months  a  close  prisoner,  and 
would  never  have  released  him  if  the  Emperor 
had  not  heard  of  the  clocks  that  were  coming, 
and  sent  immediately  for  the  European  scientist. 
Ricci  so  delighted  the  sovereign  that  he  gained 
after  a  while  free  access  to  the  palace,  a  thing 
unheard  of  before  regarding  any  foreigner. 
This  conciliated  for  him  universal  favor  among 
the  people.  A  chapel  was  built  in  the  city,  and 
a  number  of  leading  men  with  their  families  be- 
came fervent  and  steadfast  Christians.  Hence- 
forth, for  a  long  period,  all  over  China,  liberty 
of  action  was  secured  for  all  the  missionaries. 
Applicants  for  Baptism  were  found  everywhere ; 
but  strict  conditions  were  laid  down  for  admis- 
sion among  the  faithful,  the  result  being  that 
there  grew  up  numerous  congregations  distin- 
guished for  eminent  virtue  and  piety.  Even  a 
novitiate  was  opened,  and  gradually  a  native 
clergy  of  uncommon  fervor  began  to  assist  the 
European  Fathers  and  Brothers.  Fr.  Ricci 
was  constantly  in  evidence,  preaching,  promoting 
science,  writing  and  publishing  books,  instruct- 
ing converts,  etc.  Worn  out  with  excessive 
toil,  he  died  in  1610,  when  only  fifty-eight  years 
old.  His  funeral  was  most  solemn,  a  public 
tribute   to   his   distinguished   greatness,   and  the 


54  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

Emperor  gave  the  Fathers  a  palace  and  grounds 
near  the  city  to  serve  as  his  burial  place. 

The  labors  of  the  Jesuits  in  China  were  con- 
tinued for  generations  afterwards  with  most 
gratifying  success,  such  scientists  as  Schall,  Ver- 
biest  and  others  maintaining  their  reputation  for 
extraordinary  profane  learning,  while  numerous 
Fathers  and  Brothers  astonished  and  edified  the 
natives  by  their  heroic  virtue.  Pope  Innocent 
XI  addressed  a  brief  to  the  missionaries  in  1681, 
in  which  he  said :  "It  has  been  especially  wel- 
come to  us  to  observe  with  what  wisdom  and 
tact  you  have  applied  the  use  of  human  science 
to  the  salvation  of  the  people  of  China,  and  to 
the  service  and  increase  of  religion.  .  .  . 
There  is  nothing  that  we  may  not  hope  for,  with 
the  help  of  Heaven,  from  men  such  as  you." 

69.  As  has  been  the  case  all  along  through- 
out the  history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  mem- 
bers were  too  few  in  the  seventeenth  century  to 
do  all  the  work  before  them ;  and  yet  in  their 
zeal  to  save  souls  they  were  ever  prospecting 
for  new  fields  of  missionary  enterprise.  With 
this  object,  as  no  Fathers  could  be  spared,  the 
lay-brother  Goes  was  sent  to  explore  the  King- 
dom of  Catai.  He  traveled  alone,  in  the  dis- 
guise of  an  Armenian,  and  after  five  years  he 
found  a  way  from  India  to  China  through  Tar- 
tary.  Another  lay-brother  was  sent  by  Father 
Ricci  to  meet  him  on  his  arrival  in  China.     He 


Missions  to  the  Heathens  55 

found  Brother  Goes  in  a  dying  condition,  but 
happy  to  expire  in  the  arms  of  his  fellow-re- 
Hgious,  to  whom  he  said  in  his  last  moments : 
''My  dear  brother,  it  is  five  years  since  I  have 
been  to  Confession,  and  I  am  now  deprived  of 
that  happiness ;  but  blessed  be  Our  Lord,  for 
by  His  grace  I  do  not  remember,  since  my  de- 
parture, to  have  committed  any  fault  the  recol- 
lection of  which  can  sadden  me  at  this  mo- 
ment." 

70.  Father  Alexander  de  Rhodes  began  the 
mission  of  Cochin  China  and  Tong-King  about 
the  year  1627;  twelve  years  later  it  contained 
82,000  Christians,  and  at  the  end  of  half  a  cen- 
tury 200,000  had  been  received  into  the  Church. 
Banished  from  those  lands  by  the  machinations 
of  the  idolaters,  the  missionary  returned  to  Eu- 
rope and  there  founded  the  congregation  of  the 
''Missions  Etrangcres/'  which  has  given  to  the 
Church  countless  Apostles  and  Martyrs.  He 
himself  traveled  over  Persia,  Media  and  Ar- 
menia. The  mission  of  Tong-King  was  con- 
tinued by  the  Jesuits  in  the  midst  of  incessant 
persecutions. 

In  India  an  almost  insurmountable  obstacle 
prevented  the  spread  of  Christianity  among  the 
higher  castes  of  the  nation,  the  Brahmins,  or 
priests,  and  the  members  of  the  learned  classes, 
called  Rajahs.  These  refused  to  have  any  inter- 
course whatever  with  the  Pariahs,  or  with  any- 


56  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

one  that  employed  the  Pariahs  as  even  mere 
servants.  The  Portuguese  had  done  so  all 
along;  therefore  all  of  them  were  accounted  as 
Pariahs,  to  be  shunned  by  the  higher  castes. 
Father  Robert  de  Nobili  resolved  to  give  up  all 
intercourse  with  his  brethren  and  live  like  a 
Brahmin.  He  dwelt  alone  in  a  hut  of  turf, 
dressed  like  a  Rajah,  subsisting  on  rice,  herbs 
and  water,  taken  only  once  a  day,  and  spending 
his  time  in  study  and  prayer.  The  Brahmins 
began  to  visit  him ;  they  were  charmed  by  his 
learning,  especially  by  his  perfect  knowledge  of 
their  Vedas,  or  sacred  books.  Gradually  he 
proceeded  to  explain  the  doctrines  of  the  faith. 
Other  Fathers  were  sent  to  join  him ;  in  a  few 
years  over  100,000  had  been  converted,  nearly 
all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  higher  castes. 

However  the  conduct  of  Father  de  Nobili  and 
his  associates  was  severely  criticised  at  Goa,  as 
opposed  to  the  idea  of  Christian  equality  and 
tainted  w4th  superstition.  He  went  to  Goa  to 
defend  his  conduct  before  a  synod  of  priests 
presided  over  by  the  grand-inquisitor  of  the 
place.  The  decision  was,  referred  to  Rome, 
where  Pope  Gregory  XV  justified  the  Father  in 
all  he  had  done. 

71.  In  the  United  States  we  are  naturally  in- 
terested in  a  special  way  in  the  Jesuit  Missions 
of  North  America,  and  these  make  up  a  bright 
chapter  of  heroic  virtue  practised  in  the  midst 


Missions  to  the  Heathens  57 

of  uncommon  difficulties.     The  explorations  of 
Father  Marquette  and  his  discovery  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi certainly  reflect  glory  upon  such  apos- 
tolic men ;  but  the  courage  therein  displayed  is 
far  outdone  by  the   missionary   labors   and  the 
sufferings    of    Father    Jogues,    Breboeuf,    Lalle- 
mant,  Daniel,  Bressani  and  many  others.     Per- 
haps it  would  be  difficult,  in  the  history  of  all 
times  and  all  lands,  to  find  men  remarkable  for 
longer  and  at  the  same  time  more  severe  hard- 
ships and  tortures,  endured  with  unyielding  pa- 
tience, than  the  Catholic  missionaries  generally; 
and  those  of  Canada  seem  to  have  borne  more 
than  the  common  share.     We  will  quote  one  in- 
stance.    Father     Bressani,    in    1664,    writes    to 
Father  General  an  account  of  his  late  sufferings 
from  the  Iroquois  Indians.     He  begins  by  apol- 
ogizing for  the  stains  that  cover  his  paper,  as  he 
wrote  upon  the  bare  earth,  with  damp  gunpow- 
der  to   serve   as   ink,   and   the   blood    from   his 
wounds  flowing  on  the  pages.     For  many  weeks 
he   had  been   dragged   through   the   woods,   ex- 
posed to  hunger  and  cold,  tortured  and  beaten 
daily ;  his  hands  were  burnt  eighteen  times ;  all 
the  fingers  of  his  right  hand  except  one  were 
cut  off ;  he  was  hung  up  by  the  feet,  and  at  night 
tied  upright  to  a  tree,  so  that  even  then  rest  was 
impossible,    etc.     In   the   life   of   Father   Jogues 
such  torments  lasted  for  years.     And  yet  when 
he  had  at  last  succeeded  in  escaping  and  had  got 


58  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

back  to  Europe,  he  could  not  rest  till  he  re- 
turned to  Canada,  where  he  was  murdered  by 
the  Indians  for  the  Gk)spel  which  he  preached. 

y2.  The  missions  of  the  Jesuits  like  those  of 
other  religious  Orders,  are  an  endless  story  of 
heroic  enterprises,  dauntless  zeal,  persevering 
labors,  cruel  sufferings,  unyielding  patience,  and 
bloody  deaths  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  sal- 
vation of  souls.  Those  of  Canada  and  the 
Northern  portions  of  the  United  States  have 
lately  been  published  under  the  title  of  "Jesuit 
Relations  and  Allied  Documents"  by  the  Bur- 
rows Brothers,  Cleveland.  They  fill  seventy- 
two  octavo  volumes.  Hundreds  of  volumes 
would  have  to  be  added  to  narrate  similar  labors 
in  other  heathen  countries.  The  same  spirit  of 
pure  zeal  and  generous  self-sacrifice  reigns  in 
all  of  them.  Enough  has  here  been  told  to  an- 
swer the  question  on  our  title  page,  "Who  Are 
The  Jesuits?",  as  far  at  least  as  their  missions 
to  the  heathens  are  concerned. 


CHAPTER  IX 

OPPOSITION    TO    THE    JESUITS 

73.  The  open  war  of  the  Jesuits  against  error 
and  vice  has  been  going  on  from  the  beginning 
of  their  history  and  is  to  go  on  till  its  end.  It 
is  their  life,  their  only  raison  d'etre.  It  is  car- 
ried on,  not  by  the  sword,  but  by  the  pen  and  the 
crucifix  and  prayer  and  sacrifice ;  for  like  the 
Apostles  of  old  they  preach  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,  and  like  the  Apostles  they  have  been 
persecuted,  they  have  been  put  into  prisons  and 
they  have  sealed  their  testimony  with  their  blood. 
Above  all  they  have  been  slandered. 

From  the  first  years  of  their  existence  their 
Society  was,  as  we  have  seen,  among  the  fore- 
most defenders  of  the  Catholic  Church  against 
the  assaults  of  rising  Protestantism.  The  con- 
test between  these  conflicting  forces  for  the 
mastery  was  a  severe  battle  during  at  least  a 
century.  "At  first,"  writes  Macaulay,  "the 
chances  seemed  to  be  decidedly  in  favor  of 
Protestantism,  but  the  victory  remained  with  the 
Church  of  Rome.  On  every  point  it  was  suc- 
cessful." Pie  draws  the  following  contrast: 
"In  fifty  years   from  the  day  in  which   Luther 

59 


6o  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

publicly  renounced  communion  with  the  Church  of 
Rome  and  burned  the  bull  of  Leo  before  the  gates 
of  Wittenberg,  Protestantism  attained  its  highest 
ascendency — an  ascendency  which  it  soon  lost, 
and  which  it  has  never  regained.  In  England, 
Scotland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Livonia,  Prussia, 
Saxony,  Hesse,  Wurtemburg,  the  Palatinate,  in 
several  cantons  of  Switzerland,  in  the  Northern 
Netherlands,  the  Reformation  had  completely 
triumphed,  and  in  all  the  other  countries  on  this 
side  of  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees,  it  seemed  on 
the  point  of  triumphing.  .  .  .  If  we  over- 
leap another  half  century,  we  find  her  (the 
Church  of  Rome)  victorious  and  dominant  in 
France,  Belgium,  Bavaria,  Bohemia,  Austria  and 
Hungary.  Nor  has  Protestantism,  in  the  course 
of  two  hundred  years,  been  able  to  reconquer 
any  portion  of  what  it  then  lost.  It  is  more- 
over not  to  be  dissembled  that  this  wonderful 
triumph  of  the  Papacy  is  to  be  chiefly  attributed, 
not  to  force  of  arms,  but  to  a  great  reflux  in 
public  opinion."  (Essay  on  Ranke's  History  of 
the  Popes.) 

74.  That  great  reflux  in  public  opinion  was, 
of  course,  the  work  of  grace ;  the  Church  was 
the  agent'  of  God  in  the  matter ;  and  the  Jesuits 
were  very  conspicuous  agents  of  the  Church. 
And  therefore  the  Jesuits  were  more  hateful  in 
the  eyes  of  Protestants  than  any  other  body  of 
men.     It  would  then  have  been  wonderful  if  in 


opposition  to  the  Jesuits  6i 

the  midst  of  this  extraordinary  reHgious  and 
poHtical  excitement  the  leading  writers  of  the 
Protestant  party  had  not  tried  their  best  to  les- 
sen the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  by  all  manners 
of  accusations.  They  constantly  assailed  their 
lives,  their  methods,  their  teachings,  their  col- 
leges, their  writings,  their  direction  of  penitents 
in  the  confessional,  etc.  Libraries  could  be 
filled  with  books  and  papers  calumniating  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  English  literature  in  particu- 
lar, which  is  generally  anti-Catholic,  is  especially 
anti-Jesuit  to  the  core. 

Just  as  the  associated  press  lately  sent  all  over 
the  reading  world  the  slander  that  the  Jesuits 
had  thrown  dynamite  among  an  inoffensive  line 
of  students  in  Portugal,  while  the  nuns  were 
making  a  bloody  assault  on  the  soldiers,  and  the 
entire  press  of  this  country  printed  the  account 
with  scarcely  an  expression  of  doubt,  so  have 
the  Jesuits  in  particular  and  religious  in  general 
been  accused  by  Protestant  historians,  preachers 
and  all  manner  of  writers,  of  every  crime  in  the 
catalogue.  Macaulay  writes  of  the  Jesuits : 
''Nor  was  it  less  their  office  to  plot  against  the 
thrones  and  lives  of  apostate  kings,  to  spread 
evil  rumors,  to  raise  tumults,  to  inflame  civil 
wars,  to  arm  the  hand  of  the  assassin.  .  .  . 
The  right  of  rulers  to  misgovern  the  people,  the 
right  of  every  one  of  the  people  to  plunge  his 
knife  in  the  heart  of  a  bad  ruler,  were  incul- 


62  JVIio  Are  the  Jesuits? 

cated  by  the  same  man,  according  as  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  subject  of  Phihp  or  the  subject  of 
EHzabeth."      (lb.) 

Macaulay  in  this  passage  is  only  repeating 
what  has  been  said  a  thousand  times  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Jesuits,  but  not  proved  a  single  time. 
And  it  is  the  same  with  all  the  other  charges  of 
any  serious  nature  that  have  been  brought  against 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  It  is  so  easy  to  impute  a 
crime  to  a  whole  body  of  men,  and  so  difficult 
to  prove  a  negative,  especially  when  the  defender 
has  no  chance  to  get  a  hearing. 

75.  It  is"  often  argued  that  there  must  be 
something  very  wrong  with  the  Jesuits  because 
not  Protestants  alone  but  Catholics  also  have 
often  opposed  them ;  and  in  fact  they  have  been 
driven  out  of  many  Catholic  lands.  Yes,  but 
by  whom?  From  Portugal  just  now  because 
the  pronounced  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church 
and  of  all  religion  are  in  power.  From  France, 
because  the  Freemason  government  there  openly 
proclaims  its  determination  to  stamp  out  all 
Christianity.  And  what  they  now  proclaim 
openly  as  their  direct  purpose  they  labored  for 
in  hidden  ways  in  former  times,  as  they  at  pres- 
ent boast.  The  Jesuits  were  excluded  from  Ger- 
many by  the  authors  of  the  Kulturkampf,  and 
are  kept  out  to-day  by  the  enemies  of  the  Pope. 
They  were  driven  from  Italy,  a  Catholic  land, 
but  by  an  anti-Catholic  party.     They  were  driven 


opposition  to  the  Jesuits  63 

from  Spain  on  former  occasions,  and  may  be 
expelled  thence  any  day  again,  contingently 
upon  the  anti-religious  character  of  those  who 
happen  to  control  the  power. 

76.  The  principal  source  of  the  bitterness  felt 
by  Englishmen  generally  against  the  Jesuits  is 
the  part  these  took  in  resisting  Elizabeth  and 
her  successors  on  the  throne,  when  a  most  bloody 
persecution  strove  to  impose  the  Reformation  on 
the  country.  And  yet  their  conduct  in  that  mat- 
ter is  a  brilliant  gem  in  the  crown  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus,  and  in  that  of  the  Catholic 
Church  itself ;  it  is  a  close  imitation  of  the  con- 
duct of  the  Apostles  of  Christ.  The  efforts 
made  by  Elizabeth  to  crush  out  the  ancient  faith 
were  like  those  formerly  made  by  Julian  the 
Apostate,  and  exceeded  them  in  cunning,  cruelty 
and  duration.  For  a  hundred  years  it  was  ac- 
counted treason  for  any  priest  who  had  been  or- 
dained on  the  continent  to  enter  England  and 
say  Mass  there,  or  reconcile  any  fallen  Catholic 
to  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  The  penalty  was, 
to  be  drawn  on  a  hurdle  to  the  place  of  execu- 
tion, there  to  be  hanged,  cut  down  and  disem- 
boweled while  still  alive,  then  cut  up  into  four 
parts,  and  the  quarters  exposed  in  a  public  place 
till  the  birds  had  picked  off  all  the  flesh.  Dur- 
ing Elizabeth's  reign  alone  124  priests  were  thus 
executed,  and  a  large  number  of  seculars,  men 
and  women,  who  had  sheltered  the  priests  or  adr 


64  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

mitted  their  ministrations.  Many  others  died  in 
prison  of  tortures  and  privations.  The  old 
priests  of  preceding  reigns  were  rapidly  passing 
away,  and  no  Catholic  bishops  remained  in  Eng- 
land to  ordain  fresh  recruits.  The  object  of  the 
government  was  to  force  all  the  country  into 
Protestantism  by  cutting  off  all  supply  of  priests. 
77.  To  prevent  this  crying  evil,  Rev.  Wm. 
Allen,  formerly  principal  of  St.  Mary's  Hall, 
Oxford,  established  a  seminary  for  young  Eng- 
lishmen at  Douay,  which  was  afterwards  trans- 
ferred to  Rheims,  in  France.  Then  he  went  tc 
Rome  and  begged  earnestly  for  the  assistance 
of  the  Jesuits.  The  first  two  sent  over  for  this 
purpose  were  Fathers  Robert  Parsons  and  Ed- 
mund Campion,  both  English  and  Oxford  men, 
endowed  with  extraordinary  talents  and  thor- 
oughly educated.  Both  soon  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence.  Parsons  was  active  and  bold, 
gifted  with  rare  knowledge  of  character,  pos- 
sessed of  a  mind  fertile  in  expedients,  ready  wit 
and  untiring  energy,  and  thus  well  suited  to  ap- 
proach all  sorts  of  persons,  supporting  the  Cath- 
olics, priests  and  laity,  by  his  example  and  wise 
counsels,  and  bringing  back  large  numbers  of 
*he  fallen  to  the  path  of  duty.  Blessed  Campion 
from  his  boyhood  had  been  conspicuous  for  lit- 
erary ability  and  amiability  of  disposition,  a  uni- 
versal favorite.  He  soon  wrote  a  book,  called 
the  ''Ten  Reasons,"  by  which  he  was  ready  to  de- 


opposition  to  the  Jesuits  65 

fend  the  claims  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  public 
discussions,  if  the  universities  or  the  govern- 
ment would  send  disputants  to  oppose  him. 
Father  Parsons  managed  to  have  the  book  se- 
cretly printed  and  copies  scattered  through  the 
country.  It  created  an  intense  excitement 
among  the  learned  and  led  to  many  conver- 
sions. The  prime  minister,  Cecil,  became  all  the 
more  active  in  his  persecution.  The  Fathers 
then  left  London,  under  the  guidance  of  mem- 
bers of  an  association  called  "Young  Gentle- 
men," organized  by  a  rich  squire,  George  Gil- 
bert, to  protect  all  the  missionaries.  They  went 
separately,  as  Father  Parsons  writes,  "through 
most  parts  of  the  shires  of  England,  preaching 
and  administering  the  Sacraments  in  almost 
every  gentleman's  and  nobleman's  house  that  we 
passed  by,  whether  he  was  Catholic  or  not,  pro- 
vided he  had  any  Catholics  in  his  house  to  hear 
us.  .  .  .  We  had  our  lodgings,  by  procure- 
ment of  the  Catholics  within  the  house,  in  some 
part  retired  from  the  rest,  where  .  .  .  the 
next  morning  very  early  we  had  Mass,  and  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  ready  for  such  as  would  com- 
municate." 

The  Jesuits  had  many  hair-breadth  escapes, 
and  after  one  year  Campion  was  betrayed  by 
the  pursuivant  Eliot,  caught  in  the  Castle  of  a 
Mr.  Yates,  taken  to  London,  and  there  confined 
in  a  solitary  dungeon  called  "little  ease,"  where 


66       '  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

he  could  scarcely  move,  and  three  times  racked 
to  within  an  inch  of  his  life.  When  he  was  half 
dead  with  exhaustion  from  torture  and  hardship, 
he  was  brought  to  a  semi-public  disputation,  and 
seated  on  a  stool  without  support  while  two 
learned  deans  plied  him  with  objections  to  the 
Catholic  doctrine,  and  continued  the  dispute  for 
three  days.  But  such  were  Campion's  intellect, 
eloquence  and  undaunted  spirit  that  many  who 
had  come  to  scoff  went  away  greatly  edified. 

78.  Blessed  Campion,  with  Blessed  Alexander 
Briant,  Blessed  Thomas  Cottam,  all  Jesuits,  and 
four  secular  priests,  also  beatified,  were  con- 
demned as  guilty  of  high  treason  and  executed 
as  described  above.  The  secular  priests  who 
died  victims  of  the  cruel  and  protracted  persecu- 
tion in  England  displayed  the  same  heroic  forti- 
tude as  the  religious  of  various  Orders;  but  we 
must  confine  ourselves  to  our  subject,  and  show 
"Who  Are  the  Jesuits  ?" 

When  on  December  7,  1581,  Campion  was 
butchered  at  Tyburn,  a  drop  of  the  martyr's 
blood  fell  upon  Henry  Walpole,  who  from  that 
moment  felt  himself  called  to  enter  the  Society 
of  Jesus;  he  estimated  the  number  of  persons 
converted  on  the  spot  at  1,000,  and  Father  Par- 
sons soon  after  wrote  to  Rome  that  4,000  had 
lately  entered  the  Church. 

The  number  of  Jesuits  in  England  increased 
so  rapidly  that  some  twenty  years  later  there  was 


opposition  to  the  Jesuits  67 

an  English  province  of  tlie  Society;  for  Father 
Garnet,  who  was  so  unjustly  accused  of  having 
taken  part  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  was  provin- 
cial superior  at  the  time.  He  had  come  to  the 
country  with  Father  Southwell,  the  gentle  poet 
of  our  language,  who  was  tortured  thirteen  times, 
and  then  cruelly  hanged  and  quartered  at  Ty- 
burn, like  so  many  of  his  brethren.  A  price  was 
set  on  the  head  of  every  Jesuit,  and  of  course 
all  were  ever  hiding.  They  would  have  been 
foolish  if  they  had  not  studied  such  secrecy,  and 
protected  themselves  and  others  by  every  lawful 
means.  They  were  often  very  successful  in 
these  efforts,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  Prot- 
estants. These  called  the  Jesuits  secret  emis- 
saries of  the  Popes,  and  branded  their  evasive 
answers  before  the  courts  as  ''prevarications." 
The  false  charge  has  been  perpetuated  in  the 
English  language  by  coining  the  opprobrious 
terms  "Jesuiiry,"  "Jesuitical"  to  denote  false 
and  deceitful  language.  Yet  their  answers  were 
not  false,  but  merely  necessary  and  lawful  eva- 
sions, such  as  are  allowed  to  all  accused  parties 
before  the  courts  of  justice  in  the  United  States. 
79.  Happily  those  persecutions  have  passed 
away.  The  secrecy  of  the  Jesuits  exists  no 
longer  except  in  the  perverted  traditions  of  his- 
torians and  the  prejudices  of  an  ignorant  public. 
Amid  those  constant  dangers  of  imprisonment, 
torture  and  a  cruel  death,  the  Jesuits  were  com- 


68  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

pelled  to  assume  various  disguises,  sometimes 
traveling  as  merchants,  peddlers,  well-to-do  gen- 
tlemen, etc.,  so  that  even  a  magistrate  might  be 
conversing  with  one  of  them  without  ever  sus- 
pecting it.  Hence  the  false  impression  has  orig- 
inated that  even  to-day  there  are  Jesuits  in  dis- 
guise scattered  through  this  country.  Thus  a 
few  years  ago  a  congressman  in  Washington  in 
one  of  his  speeches  stated  that  he  could  point  out 
such  persons  among  the  representatives  of  the 
nation  then  present  in  the  hall.  Such  ignorance 
is  truly  laughable ;  but  considering  that  it  exists 
among  men  of  education,  it  is  really  disgraceful. 
It  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  remembering 
that  English  literature  is  thoroughly  saturated 
with  the  poison  of  prejudice  and  hostility  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  For  this  the  present  genera- 
tion of  Protestants  and  infidels  are  more  to  be 
pitied  than  blamed ;  and  these  pages  are  intended 
to  tell  them  the  plain,  unvarnished  truth. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE     SUPPRESSION     OF    THE     SOCIETY 

80.  From  all  that  has  so  far  been  said  it  is 
evident  that  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  been  insti- 
tuted for  the  most  laudable  purposes,  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  welfare  of  men,  and  that  its 
members  have  in  various  lands  and  times  exhib- 
ited heroic  virtue  in  pursuing  those  lofty  de- 
signs. Of  course  v^e  do  not  pretend  that  every 
one  of  them  was  an  Ignatius,  a  Xavier,  an 
Aloysius,  a  Campion,  or  the  equal  of  such  Saints ; 
but  we  do  maintain  that  the  number  of  truly 
great  and  admirable  Jesuits,  in  sanctity  of  life, 
in  apostolic  labors,  in  learned  writings,  in  zeal- 
ous and  eloquent  preaching,  in  the  more  hidden 
life  of  the  confessional,  the  classroom  and  the 
hospital,  etc.,  etc.,  is  exceedingly  large  in  pro- 
portion to  the  fewness  of  the  men  admitted  into 
their  Order.  We  maintain  besides  that  the  great 
heroes  we  have  mentioned,  and  others  like  them, 
are  ever  held  up  to  the  novices  and  young  mem- 
bers of  each  succeeding  generation  as  their  mod- 
els for  emulation.  The  training  of  all  by  the 
same  Spiritual  Exercises,  the  Constitution  and 
the  rules  of  the  Order,  the  religious  vows  and 

69 


/ 


o  WJio  Are  the  Jesuits? 


their  observance, — these  have  remained  the  same 
throughout  the  history  of  the  Society,  except 
only  that  more  prayer  has  been  added  by  the 
General  Congregations,  and  more  cautions  en- 
acted to  prevent  all  relaxation. 

8i.  Of  course  faults  have  at  times  been  com- 
mitted by  individuals,  and  when  they  did  occur 
they  have  given  great  scandal,  because  in  such 
contrast  to  the  general  reputation  of  the  Order. 
Thus  a  Jesuit  Father  stood  out  so  prominent 
among  the  Modernists.  But  such  men  do  not 
infect  the  Society,  because  as  soon  as  found  out 
they  are  expelled  from  its  body,  and  they  leave 
behind  them  for  their  brethren  nothing  but  a 
warning  against  similar  falls.  And  so  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  has  never  had  a  season  of  relaxa- 
tion or  decay.  While  Hannibal's  soldiers  were 
in  the  field  of  war  they  were  heroic,  when  in  the 
rest  and  luxury  of  Capua  they  were  demoral- 
ized. 

The  Jesuits  have  all  along  been  at  war  with 
the  enemies  of  God  and  His  Church,  ever  on 
the  firing  line  and  in  the  thickest  of  the  bat- 
tle. In  every  land  where  and  when  the  op- 
ponents of  the  Church  prevailed,  these  have  ex- 
pelled the  Jesuits,  as  we  have  seen  above.  If 
in  France  the  Sorbonne  opposed  them,  it  was  the 
natural  jealousy  of  trade,  because  its  monopoly 
of  education  was  at  stake ;  and  similar  instances 
may  be  found  elsewhere.     But  as  a  rule  the  ene- 


The  Suppression  of  the  Society        yi 

mies  of  the  Jesuits  have  always  been  the  enemies 
of  the  Pope. 

82.  But  to  the  eyes  of  such  as  have  not  studied 
the  matter  with  care,  one  dark  spot  appears  to 
rest  upon  the  history  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
namely  that  it  was  suppressed  by  the  Supreme 
Pontiff  Clement  XIV.  That  Pope  did  not  pro- 
nounce any  condemnation  of  the  Jesuits.  The 
Protestant  historian  Schoell  in  his  ''Cours  d'His- 
toire  des  Etats  Europeens"  (vol.  44,  p.  83) 
writes:  "It  (the  Brief  of  suppression)  con- 
demns neither  the  doctrine,  nor  the  morals,  nor 
the  discipline  of  the  Jesuits.  The  complaints  of 
the  courts  against  the  Order  are  the  only  motives 
alleged  for  its  suppression."  In  fact  that  Brief 
"Domiftus  et  Redempto/'  is  a  most  valuable  doc- 
ument to  vindicate  the  honor  of  the  Society. 
The  Pope  says  in  it  that  he  "tenderly  loves  in 
the  Lord  all  its  individual  members."  Why 
then  did  he  suppress  the  Order?  Because  all 
the  leading  powers  of  Catholic  Europe  de- 
manded it,  and  urged  their  demands  with  re- 
lentless pertinacity.  Already  Portugal,  Spain, 
France,  Naples,  Parma  and  Malta  had  taken 
the  matter  in  their  own  hands,  had  expelled  the 
members  from  all  those  lands  and  all  the  mis- 
sionary countries  subject  to  them,  confiscated  all 
their  property  and  sent  the  Jesuits  by  the  ship- 
loads to  the  ports  of  the  Papal  States.  The 
Pope  offered  to  hold  a  General  Council  to  con- 


"^2  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

sider  the  way  of  restoring  peace.  The  powers 
would  not  hear  of  any  measure  but  the  total  sup- 
pression of  the  Order.  When  at  last  Maria 
Theresa,  induced  to  do  so  by  her  eccentric  son 
Joseph,  joined  in  the  demand  of  the  Bourbon 
courts,  Clement  XIV  lost  courage.  A  powerful 
appeal  to  him  was  the  threat  of  a  wide  schism  in 
the  Church.  He  begged  piteously  for  delay  at 
least,  but  the  Spanish  envoy,  Florida  Blanca,  re- 
plied that  if  any  further  resistance  was  made 
the  King  would  require  the  abolition,  not  only 
of  the  Jesuits,  but  of  all  religious  Orders. 

83.  But  what  reasons  had  the  courts  for  hat- 
ing the  Jesuits?  The  Spanish  government  had 
issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  good  rea- 
sons existed  for  banishing  the  Jesuits,  and  for 
confiscating  their  property,  but  that  ''these  rea- 
sons must  remain  forever  locked  up  in  the  royal 
bosom'* ;  and  the  King  afterwards  stated  that  no 
one  should  ever  know  the  motives  which  had 
induced  him  to  act  as  he  had  done.  The  real 
reason  is  now  publicly  known ;  it  was  that  his 
prime  minister,  d'Aranda,  had  made  him  believe 
that  the  Jesuits  were  plotting  to  dethrone  him, 
on  the  false  plea  that  the  King  was  an  illegiti- 
mate son.  The  very  suspicion  of  such  a  dis- 
grace was  not  to  be  publicly  discussed.  (Vic 
du  Pcre  Pignatelli,  par  BoiifHcr,  chs.  12,  13.)  In 
France  the  weak  King  Louis  XV  was  domineered 
by  his  mistress,  the  infamous  Madame  de  Pompa- 


The  Suppression  of  the  Society        73 

dour.  Angered  by  the  opposition  of  the  Jesuits 
to  her  status  in  the  court,  she  joined  for  revenge 
the  coahtion  of  the  Bourbon  courts  against  the 
Society.  The  first  mover  in  the  whole  plot  had 
been  Pombal,  the  prime  minister  of  Portugal. 
He  had  risen  from  the  middle  classes,  and  two 
of  the  noblest  families  of  Portugal  had  refused 
to  let  their  daughters  marry  his  son.  In  revenge 
he  had  all  their  members  arrested  and  tried  on  an 
unproved  charge  of  conspiracy  to  murder  the 
King.  He  had  them  all  condemned  to  death 
and  executed  in  frightful  torments.  Three 
Jesuits  were  special  friends  of  those  families. 
He  had  them  also  arrested.  But  the  law  was 
that  only  the  Papal  Nuncio  could  pronounce 
judgment  on  clergymen.  He  expelled  the  Nun- 
cio, and  caused  the  Jesuit  Father  Malagrida,  a 
most  venerable  old  man  of  distinguished  merit, 
to  be  accused  of  heresy  and  burned  in  a  solemn 
auto-da-fe.  He  banished  at  once  all  the  Jesuits 
from  all  the  Portuguese  dominions  and  confis- 
cated their  property  for  the  use  of  the  State. 

84.  But  how  did  it  come  that  the  people  in 
all  those  countries  tolerated  such  outrages?  The 
people  had  very  little  to  say  in  those  days.  The 
courts  were  at  the  height  .of  their  tyrannical 
power,  and  were  thoroughly  corrupt  by  immo- 
rality and  infidelity,  preparing  by  their  excesses 
for  the  vast  upheaval  against  them  in  the  Reign 
of  Terror,  which  followed  a  few  years  later,  and 


74  J'^ho  Arc  the  Jesuits? 

swept  the  Bourbon  rulers  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  A  vast  tidal  wave  of  impiety  had  been 
poured  lately  over  Europe,  raised  by  the  abuse 
and  ridicule  of  Christianity  uttered  by  Voltaire, 
Bayle,  Diderot,  Holbach,  Condillac,  Helvetius, 
d'Alembert  and  many  others,  who  wrote  in  a 
most  popular  style  to  inflame  the  passions  of  the 
learned  and  the  ignorant.  The  Jansenists  mean- 
while, by  exaggerated  severity  of  morals  and 
doctrine,  had  alienated  the  faithful  from  the  sac- 
raments and  from  the  Pope.  The  Jesuits  were 
the  principal  breakwater  to  resist  the  swelling 
tide  of  hatred  against  the  Church  and  her  sound 
doctrine ;  and  therefore  all  the  powers  of  evil 
were  unanimous  in  warring  against  them.  Nor 
were  their  enemies  remiss  in  their  attacks.  Here 
is  an  instance.  Sealed  dispatches  were  sent  by 
the  King  of  Spain  to  his  officers  in  the  four 
quarters  of  the  globe,  bearing  the  superscription 
that  they  were  not  to  be  opened,  on  pain  of 
death,  before  the  evening  of  April  2,  1767. 
Then,  at  the  same  hour,  throughout  the  vast  ex- 
tent of  the  Spanish  dominions,  the  officers  of  the 
government  broke  the  seals  and  read  these  dread- 
ful lines:  "I  invest  you  with  all  the  powers  of 
my  royal  authority  to  enter  immediately  with 
force  of  arms  the  house  of  the  Jesuits,  to  seize 
on  their  persons,  and  to  convey  them  as  pris- 
oners, within  twenty-four  hours,  to  the  port  indi- 
cated, where  they  are  to  be  embarked  in  vessels 


The  Suppression  of  the  Society        75 

destined  for  that  purpose.  At  the  moment  of 
executing  this  decree,  you  will  seal  up  the 
archives  of  the  house,  and  the  private  papers  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  not  allows  them  to  take  anything 
with  them  but  their  breviaries  and  the  linen 
strictly  necessary  for  their  voyage.  If  after  the 
embarkation  there  remain  a  single  Jesuit  (even 
though  ill  or  dying)  in  your  district,  you  will  be 
liable  to  capital  punishment." 

The  sufferings  then  endured  by  the  Fathers 
and  Brothers  were  heart-rending.  In  a  single 
night  six  thousand  of  them — many  venerable  for 
their  age,  illustrious  by  their  birth,  esteemed  for 
piety  and  virtue,  celebrated  for  talents  and  learn- 
ing— were  seized  like  the  vilest  criminals,  and 
embarked  as  if  in  slave  ships.  Half  starved  dur- 
ing the  voyage,  they  were  finally  landed  in 
utter  poverty  on  the  coast  of  Italy.  Similar 
treatment  was  meted  out  to  all  the  Jesuits  of 
three  Catholic  lands.  And  yet  history  has  not 
preserved  any  record  of  an  impatient  spirit  or 
conduct  or  word  on  the  part  of  the  victims ;  they 
suffered  as  the  early  Martyrs  had  suffered  under 
the  Pagan  tyrants,  as  the  Divine  Saviour,  their 
one  great  Model,  had  suffered  before  the  tri- 
bunals and  on  Calvary.  Such  were  the  Jesuits 
till  their  suppression. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    SOCIETY    REESTABLISHED 

85.  The  Society  of  Jesus  had  not  only  been 
officially  suppressed  and  had  ceased  to  exist  as 
a  living  body,  as  its  great  Model,  Christ,  really 
died  upon  the  cross,  but,  like  Christ  also,  it  had 
been  overwhelmed  v^ith  false  accusations  and  all 
manner  of  ignominy  before  and  during  and  after 
its  death.  The  Supreme  Pontiff  himself,  though 
without  expressing  any  conviction  of  their  guilt, 
had  yielded  to  the  cries  of  their  enemies  and  de- 
livered up  the  Jesuit  Order  to  destruction.  True 
he  had  proclaimed  in  his  Brief  a  defense  of  the 
members,  saying :  *' We  forbid  all  and  every  one, 
under  pain  of  excommunication  reserved  to  us 
and  to  our  successors,  to  dare  attack  or  insult, 
on  occasion  of  this  suppression,  whether  in  se- 
cret or  in  public,  in  word  or  writing,  by  disputes, 
insults,  affronts  and  any  other  manner  of  con- 
tempt, any  one  whatever,  and  still  less  those  who 
were  members  of  the  said  Order." 

What  did  the  wicked  enemies,  who  had 
brought  about  the  suppression,  care  for  these 
earnest  words  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff?  The 
Socletv  of  T^^i^is  went  down  in  an  ocean  of  abuse 

76 


The  Society  Reestablished  yy 

and  calumny,  and  many  writers  have  perpetuated 
the  false  charges  in  the  pages  of  histories  and 
other  literature  till  the  present  day. 

But  the  Blessed  Saviour  graciously  deigned 
to  preserve  a  remnant  of  His  Society  from  utter 
destruction,  and  soon  after  brought  about  its 
glorious  resurrection.  The  Protestant  King  of 
Prussia,  Frederick  II,  refused  to  allow  the 
Jesuits  to  be  suppressed  in  his  dominions.  The 
bishops,  not  wishing  to  offend  the  monarch,  de- 
clined to  interfere ;  and  one  of  them,  the  bishop 
of  Culm,  even  requested  the  Jesuits  to  take  the 
direction  of  his  seminary.  The  Fathers  how- 
ever would  not  disobey  the  Pope.  But  soon 
Clement  XIV  sank  under  the  burden  of  his  trou- 
bled pontificate ;  and  only  two  years  after  the 
suppression  Frederick  II  informed  the  Jesuits 
of  Breslau,  September  2y^  I775,  that  the  new 
Pope,  Pius  VI,  left  him  perfect  liberty  to  take 
all  the  measures  he  considered  fitting  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Society  in  Prussia,  and  that 
they  might  therefore,  without  fear  of  disobedi- 
ence to  the  Pontiff,  live  in  community  and  direct 
their  colleges. 

86.  Things  had  gone  still  better  in  Russia. 
There  the  Empress  Catherine  II  had  promised 
the  Catholic  inhabitants  of  White  Russia,  when 
they  submitted  to  her  dominion,  to  maintain  their 
religious  houses  and  colleges ;  she  wrote  to  Rome, 
and  in  June,  1774,  obtained  a  decree  from  Clem- 


yS  IV ho  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

ent  XIV  himself,  authorizing  the  Jesuits  of 
White  Russia  to  remain  in  statu  quo  till  further 
orders.  In  1785  they  were  allowed  by  a  verbal 
approbation  of  the  Pope  to  elect  a  Vicar-Gen- 
erai  over  them ;  in  1801  Pius  VI  published  a  de- 
cree reestablishing  the  Society  for  that  country. 
At  last,  on  the  7th  of  August,  1814,  the  Supreme 
Pontiff  went  in  solemn  state  to  the  Jesuit  Church 
of  the  Gesu,  in  Rome,  amid  the  enthusiastic 
shouts  of  joy  of  his  people ;  and  there,  in  the 
presence  of  150  surviving  members  of  the  old 
Society,  by  the  Brief  "Sollicitudo  Omniiun  Ec- 
clesiarum/'  with  intense  feelings  of  joy,  rees- 
tablished the  Society  for  the  entire  Church  of 
God. 

The  document  is  an  eloquent  tribute  to  the 
Society.  It  says  in  part:  ''The  Catholic  world 
unanimously  demands  the  reestablishment  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  We  daily  receive  most  earnest 
petitions  to  this  effect  from  our  venerable  breth- 
ren the  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  from  other 
eminent  persons.  .  .  .  We  should  deem  our- 
selves guilty  of  great  negligence  before  God,  if, 
in  the  presence  of  the  perils  that  threaten  Chris- 
tendom, we  neglected  the  assistance  given  to  us 
by  God's  special  providence,  and  if,  placed  at 
the  helm  of  the  bark  of  Peter,  tossed  by  con- 
tinual tempests,  we  refused  to  employ  vigorous 
and   experienced   seamen   to   master  the   waves 


The  Society  Reestablished  79 

that  threaten  every  instant  to  cause  destruction 
and  death,"  etc. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Pius  VII  performed  this 
solemn  act  of  restoration  for  the  Society  of 
Jesus  only  three  months  after  he  had  been  de- 
livered from  captivity  in  France  by  the  fall  of 
Napoleon.  His  predecessor  Pius  VI,  v^ho  had 
been  a  pupil  of  the  Fathers  and  ever  loved  them 
v^armly,  v^ould  have  been  most  happy  to  reestab- 
lish the  Society  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  con- 
tinued opposition  of  the  Bourbon  princes.  God 
Himself  removed  that  obstacle  by  destroying 
their  kingly  thrones. 

87.  The  Jesuits  had  not  v^aited  for  their  for- 
mal reestablishment  to  give  proof  that  the  same 
spirit  of  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  sal- 
vation of  souls  which  had  animated  them  from 
the  time  of  St.  Ignatius  was  still  as  lively  as  ever 
in  their  hearts  in  the  period  of  their  humiliation. 
Thus  when  the  army  of  Napoleon  had  marched 
on  Moscow,  they  were,  as  of  old,  in  the  midst  of 
the  sick  and  dying  soldiers  in  the  hospitals  and 
on  the  field  of  battle,  and  fourteen  of  the  Fa- 
thers gave  their  lives  in  the  service  of  charity. 

While  teaching  and  preaching  in  their  colleges 
and  churches,  they  devoted  themselves  especially 
to  gain  all  hearts  for  Christ,  by  propagating 
among  them  a  lively  devotion  to  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  Jesus,     For  those  who  know  the  his- 


8o  IV ho  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

tory  of  the  Church  of  Christ  more  thoroughly 
must  be  aware  that  the  same  storm  which  had 
raged  against  the  Society  of  Jesus,  had  also  as- 
sailed with  special  violence  the  devotion  to  the 
Sacred  Heart.  When  the  Blessed  Saviour  had 
revealed  the  rich  treasures  of  this  wonderful  de- 
votion to  His  favorite  servant  Blessed  Mar- 
guerite Mary  Alacoque,  in  1689,  she  wrote  :  ''The 
Divine  Heart  wills  that  the  Jesuit  Fathers  shall 
make  known  the  usefulness  and  the  excellence 
of  this  devotion ;  for  It  has  reserved  this  task 
for  them."  On  another  occasion  she  wrote : 
*'This  Heart  has  promised  that  it  will  pour  out, 
above  all  measure  and  without  restriction.  Its 
sacred  blessings  upon  the  labors  which  the  So- 
ciety undertakes  for  the  love  of  the  souls  com- 
mitted to  its  care." 

Now  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  Jansenists 
liad  been  all  along  the  violent  opponents  of  this 
devotion ;  its  spirit  is  most  nearly  akin  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  the  spirit  of 
the  Jansenists  was  diametrically  opposed  to  both. 
They  had  been  successful  by  their  intrigues  at 
the  courts  to  have  the  Jesuits  suppressed ;  they 
also  agitated  for  the  condemnation  of  that  de- 
votion. In  fact  in  1786  their  synod  of  Pistoia 
dared  to  pronounce  such  condemnation.  While 
the  Jesuits  were  removed  from  the  sacred  min- 
istry, the  devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart  lan- 
guished in  most  countries,  but  they  carried  it  to 


The  Society  Reestablished  8i 

a  high  degree  of  fervor  in  White  Russia.  Since 
their  reestabUshment  they  have  been  active  in 
propagating  it  and  the  ahied  practice  of  the 
Apostleship  of  Prayer,  which  has  at  present 
twenty-five  milhon  members ;  and  they  have  thus 
with  God's  grace  helped  to  renovate  the  fervor 
of  tlie  CathoHc  world.  These  practices  prepared 
the  way  for  the  increased  frequentation  of  Holy 
Communion  among  the  faithful,  which  our  Holy 
Father  Pius  X  is  using  so  efficiently  for  the 
grand  aim  of  all  his  endeavors,  ''to  renew  all 
things  in  Christ." 

Thus,  while  the  enemies  of  the  Jesuits  con- 
tinue to  talk  and  to  write  against  them  as  plotting 
revolutions,  assassinations,  treason  and  all 
manner  of  wickedness,  the  Fathers  have  been 
busy  all  along  in  the  course  of  their  history, 
promoting  piety,  morality,  learning,  and  every 
private  and  public  virtue. 

88.  Russia,  though  a  schismatic  power,  had 
sheltered  the  Society  during  the  stress  of  the 
storm  which  swept  them  from  all  Catholic  lands ; 
in  1 815  it  expelled  them  also,  but  the  rest  of 
Europe  was  then  ready  to  receive  them.  Two 
numerous  congregations  of  priests  had  meanwhile 
been  formed  in  France  and  -Italy  to  replace  them 
in  their  absence,  as  far  as  this  was  feasible,  and 
to  unite  with  them  when  the  long  expected  re- 
establishment  had  been  accomplished,  the  Fathers 
of   the   Faith   and   those   of   the   Sacred   Heart. 


82  Who  Arc  the  Jesuits? 

Both  contained  many  learned  and  holy  men,  who 
became  in  due  time  most  worthy  and  efficient 
members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  But  the 
Jesuits  acted  with  consummate  prudence.  They 
admitted  those  applicants,  not  conjointly  but 
singly,  and  formed  each  of  them  individually  in 
the  ancient  mold  of  the  Spiritual  Exercises,  the 
ordinary  trials  of  the  novitiate,  and  all  the  old 
customs  and  practices  which  had  been  preserved 
with  religious  fidelity  in  White  Russia. 

Thus  the  Fathers  and  Brothers  of  the  restored 
Society  have,  by  Providential  dispensation,  been 
preserved  in  the  same  spirit,  and  with  all  the 
same  aims  and  traditions,  that  characterized 
their  predecessors.  They  have  been  doing  the 
same  work,  have  rendered  the  same  services, 
attained  the  same  success,  and  met  the  same 
opposition  from  the  world,  the  devil  and  the 
flesh.  What  proves  their  identity  with  the  old 
Society  most  clearly  is  the  identity  of  the  spirit 
in  which  they  have  been  opposed  in  every  period 
of  their  history. 

89.  The  restored  Society  had  many  and  great 
difficulties  to  contend  with.  All  Europe  had  been 
deeply  disturbed  by  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  spirit  of  anarchy  it  had  left  behind  it,  and 
ravaged  by  the  Napoleonic  wars.  The  higher 
studies  had  been  generally  interrupted,  espe- 
cially in  Catholic  lands.     Civilization  had  to  be  in 


The  Society  Reestablished  83 

great  part  rebuilt;  and  the  former  educators, 
who  had  been  mostly  Jesuits,  were  nearly  all 
dead  or  in  foreign  lands*.  The  young  Society 
contained,  naturally,  as  yet  few  thoroughly 
learned  men,  trained  in  the  old  curriculum  of 
solid  studies.  It  is  truly  wonderful  that  in  so 
short  a  time  it  has  recovered  its  ancient  prom- 
inence in  the  Catholic  world.  An  additional 
difficulty,  in  the  way  of  its  progress  in  higher 
studies,  lay  in  the  rapid  accumulation  of  work 
upon  its  hands,  both  in  Europe  and  in  foreign 
missions,  especially  in  the  multiplication  of  col- 
leges, to  which  it  was  invited  on  all  sides.  Thus 
its  younger  members  were  often  prevented  from 
performing  those  long  courses  of  studies  which 
are  ever  expected  from  its  Fathers.  Happily  all 
these  obstacles  were  overcome  after  some  years 
by  earnest  and  persevering  efforts,  and  its  studies 
have  been  brought  up  before  this  time  to  a 
degree  of  fullness  and  thoroughness  which  has 
never  been  surpassed. 

90.  The  lists  of  its  leaders  of  thought  in 
Theology,  Philosophy,  Astronomy,  Mathematics, 
History,  Canon  law.  Biology  and  other  sciences 
is  long  and  brilliant;  and  the  gigantic  labors  of 
the  Bollandists,  of  the  commentators  who  have 
published  the  Cursus  Completus  Scripturce  SacrcB, 
and  other  enterprises  of  the  present  day,  rival 
the    most    remarkable    productions    of    the    old 


84  Who  Are  the  Jesidtsf 

Society,  while  the  foreign  missions  cover  most 
of  the  heathen  lands  with  as  vast  a  net  work  of 
establishments  as  ever  before. 

91.  This  efficiency  of  the  new  Society  is  em- 
phasized by  the  violence  with  which,  like  its 
parent  body,  it  has  been  persecuted  in  many  lands 
by  the  enemies  of  the  Church.  In  1834  the 
Freemasons  and  a  raving  mob  attacked  the 
Jesuit  College  at  Madrid,  broke  open  the  gates, 
profaned  the  sacred  vessels  and  massacred  fif- 
teen of  the  Fathers.  The  following  year  the 
Society  was  formally  suppressed  in  Spain.  No 
pretext  was  assigned,  either  religious  or  political. 
The  same  year  saw  it  banished  from  Portugal 
under  circumstances  of  exceeding  cruelty.  In 
1845  France  demanded  of  Pope  Gregory  XVI 
that  the  Jesuits  in  that  country  should  once  more 
be  secularized.  A  congregation  of  Cardinals  was 
assembled  to  consider  the  matter,  that  the  Pope 
might  not  oppose  himself  to  the  French  govern- 
ment ;  but  the  decision  was  clear  and  firm,  stating 
that,  the  existence  of  the  Jesuits  in  that  land 
being  perfectly  legal,  their  conduct  blameless  and 
their  services  valuable  to  religion,  the  Holy  See 
could  not  yield  to  the  request  of  the  government. 
Still  the  Society  was  soon  compelled  to  close 
several  of  its  colleges.  Everybody  knows  how, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Kulturkampf,  Germany 
drove  out  all  the  religious  and  has  not  yet  allowed 
the  Jesuits  to  have  a  corporate  existence  in  their 


The  Society  Reestablished  85 

native  country ;  how  France  perpetrated  the  same 
outrage  a  few  years  ago,  Portugal  within  the  last 
few  weeks,  and  Spain  and  Italy  may  do  so  any 
day. 

92.  The  religious  body  thus  perpetually  assailed 
is  the  Company  of  Jesus,  and  it  is  not  surprised 
that  it  is  treated  like  its  Master.  Of  Him  the 
Royal  Prophet  sang:  ''Why  have  the  Gentiles 
raged  and  the  people  devised  vain  things?  The 
Kings  of  the  earth  stood  up  and  the  princes  met 
together,  against  the  Lord,  and  against  His 
Christ."  And  when  the  Divine  Child  had  come 
and  was  brought  into  the  Temple,  the  old  man 
Simeon  took  Him  in  his  arms  and  said :  ''Behold 
this  Child  is  set  for  the  fall  and  for  the  res- 
urrection of  many,  and  for  a  sign  which  shall 
be  contradicted."  And  Jesus  has  been  so  ever 
since,  the  source  of  salvation  to  many,  the  object 
of  persecution  to  many  others, — Jesus  and  His 
Church,  and  all  Plis  friends,  among  them  the 
little  Society  of  Jesus. 

Why  should  all  those  powerful  countries  with 
their  millions  of  armed  soldiers  be  as  it  were 
afraid  of  the  handful  of  men  which  constitutes 
the  Society  of  Jesus?  How  many  of  them  are 
there  after  all?  and  where  are  they?  and  what 
are  they  doing?  Let  us  get  some  clear  ideas 
on  the  subject.  We  will  begin  at  home.  In 
the  United  States  alone  there  are,  as  given  in 
the   World  Almanac   for   1906,    1,062,425   Free- 


86  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

masons ;  the  Jesuits  here  do  not  count  one  500th 
part  of  that  number,  only  1,824,  and  of  these  far 
more  than  half  are  humble  lay-brothers  and 
young  men  still  preparing  for  the  priesthood. 
There  are  in  the  whole  United  States,  counting 
those  disabled  by  age  or  sickness,  only  707  Jesuit 
priests. 

Where  are  they?  Most  of  them  in  the  class 
room  teaching  boys,  others  in  the  confessionals, 
the  hospitals,  by  the  sickbed  in  private  houses, 
in  the  pulpit,  at  their  desk  writing  books  or 
articles  for  the  ''America"  or  other  Catholic  peri- 
odicals, in  which  every  one  can  read  their  publi- 
cations on  religion,  science,  literature,  etc.,  etc. 
Or  they  are  giving  missions  in  public  churches, 
where  every  one  is  invited  to  come  and  hear 
them ;  or  they  go  among  the  Indians  and  the 
negroes,  preaching  everywhere  Christ  and  Him 
crucified.  And  as  they  are  doing  in  this  land 
so  they  are  in  every  other  country.  How  many 
Jesuits  are  there  in  the  whole  world?  There 
were  on  the  ist  of  January,  1909,  in  all  16,159, 
of  whom  4,015  were  lay-brothers,  4,416 
scholastics,  and  only  7,728  priests,  all  working 
in  open  daylight  Ad  Major  em  Dei  Gloriam,  to 
the  Greater  Glory  of  God. 

The  manner  in  which  Jesuit  priests  spend 
their  time  can  best  be  understood  by  seeing  a  de- 
tailed account  of  what  has  been  done  by  a  given 
number   of   them   in   a   definite   space   of   time. 


The  Society  Reestablished  87 

It  is  a  fair  sample  of  their  ordinary  labors.  It 
will  clearly  show,  among  other  things,  that  men 
so  occupied  have  no  leisure  to  plot  against  the 
liberty  of  the  State  or  mix  in  worldly  politics. 

The  middle  portion  of  the  United  States  is 
served  by  the  Jesuits  of  what  is  called  the  Mis- 
souri Province.  Among  them  356  are  priests, 
265  scholastics,  that  is  young  men  still  prepar- 
ing for  the  priesthood,  and  163  lay-brothers. 
Now  these  356  priests,  during  one  year,  July  i, 
1909,  to  July  I,  1910,  have  been  engaged  in  the 
following  professional  works : 

Institutions  officered  and  directed  by  them, 

Universities,       4,        Colleges,  10; 

High-Schools,  10,        Grammar  Schools,        36; 

Parishes  administered,  20; 

Mission  stations  in  foreign  lands,  9; 

Societies  directed,  156; 
Baptisms  administered, 

Infants.  3,364 

Adult  converts,  after  instruction,  956 

Extreme  Unction  to  the  dying,  5o90 

Marriages  blessed,  1,082 

Confessions  heard,  1,302,906 

Holy  Communions  distributed,  1,472,122 

Sermons  and  addresses,  I4>i78 

Catechetical  instructions  to  classes,  I3,337 

Retreats  to  bodies  of  the  clergy,  22 

to  convents  of  religious,  217 

to  colleges  and  academies,  57 

Parish  missions,  248 

Novenas  and  Tridua,  247 


88  IV ho  Are  the  Jesuits? 

Visits  to  prisons,  985  5 

to  hospitals,  6,109; 

to  sick  in  their  homes,  15,827; 

Periodicals  regular!}'  published,  19; 

Besides  volumes,  pamphlets,  and  contributions  to  peri- 
odicals not  under  their  direction. 

Why  then  are  such  men  dreaded  and  even  hated 
by  many?  Because  they  have  been  constantly 
misrepresented  by  designing  men,  in  histories, 
novels  and  the  daily  press.  We  will  examine 
some  of  the  principal  slanders. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PRINCIPAL    SLANDERS    AGAINST    THE    JESUITS 

93.  I.  Perhaps  the  best  known  slander  against 
the  Jesuits  is  that  they  teach  the  false  doctrine 
that  the  end  justifies  the  means.  St.  Paul  tells 
us  that  the  early  followers  of  Jesus  were  accused 
of  teaching  the  same  error :  "  As  we  are  slan- 
dered, and  as  some  affirm  that  we  say,  'Let  us  do 
evil  that  there  may  come  good.' "  (Rom.  iii, 
8.)  It  is  no  wonder  then  that  the  Society  of 
the  same  Jesus  should  be  similarly  slandered. 
This  slander  has  been  scattered  broadcast  over 
the  English-speaking  world  in  many  writings, 
in  particular  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  a 
most  untrustworthy  publication  on  Catholic  sub- 
jects, which  has  been  printed  in  so  cheap  an 
edition  that  copies  of  it  are  found  everywhere, 
serving  as  a  storehouse  of  anti-Catholic  slanders 
for  every  village  editor.  In  it  Dr.  Littledale, 
a  notorious  enemy  of  the  Catholics,  in  his  article 
''The  Jesuits"  pretends  to  prove  by  direct  quo- 
tations from  three  Jesuit  theologians  that  this 
false  doctrine  is  taught  by  the  Society.  He 
names  the  authors.  Fathers  Layman,  Busenbaum 
and  Wageman,  but  he  does  not  say  where  the 

89 


90  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

texts  quoted  from  their  voluminous  works  are 
to  be  found.  This  is  not  honest.  However 
Father  Brandi,  S.J.,  in  an  article  of  the  Ameri- 
can Catholic  Quarterly  Review  for  1890,  pp.  472, 
etc.,  triumphantly  refutes  the  slanderous  accusa- 
tion. 

In  the  year  1852  Father  Roh  in  Germany,  to 
lay  this  spectre  once  for  all,  issued  a  public 
challenge,  offering  1,000  marks  to  anyone  who 
could  prove  the  charge,  the  law  faculty  of  the 
University  of  Heidelberg  or  of  Bonn  to  be  the 
judge.  The  money  has  not  yet  been  earned. 
Similar  offers  for  proving  the  same  charge  have 
been  made  every  now  and  then,  in  the  United 
States  and  elsewhere.  The  charge  was  never 
proved,  because  it  is  a  myth.  The  three  Jesuits 
referred  to  teach  just  the  same  as  all  other 
Jesuit  moralists.  Thus  Layman,  one  of  them, 
says :  ''The  fact  of  being  directed  towards  a 
good  end  does  not  make  good  an  action  which 
is  in  itself  evil,  but  leaves  it  simply  and  entirely 
evil, — and  therefore  it  would  be  a  sin  to  tell  a 
lie  in  order  to  help  your  neighbor."  (Theol.  I\Ior. 
B,  I,  Treat.  H,  c.  9.) 

While  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  is  thus 
shown  to  be  very  unfair  to  the  Jesuits,  the 
reader  may  find  in  Chambers'  Cyclopedia  a 
sober  and  trustworthy  article  under  the  heading 
"Jesuits." 

94.  H.  A.      second      calumny     often      quoted 


Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits  91 

against  the  Society  of  Jesus  is  in  the  shape  of  a 
book  called  "Monita  Seer  eta,"  or  *' Secret  Instruc- 
tions," which  Father  Aqua  viva,  the  fifth  General 
Superior  of  the  Society,  fs  pretended  to  have 
drawn  up  to  direct  the  conduct  of  the  fully 
initiated  members.  It  is  not  simply  a  misrep- 
resentation but  a  rank  imposture,  a  fabrica- 
tion cut  out  of  the  whole  cloth.  No  well  in- 
formed man  believes  it  to  be  authentic.  The 
Catalogue  of  the  British  Museum,  a  most  dis- 
passionate witness,  calls  the  work  "Apocryphal." 
Pascal,  the  bitterest  and  ablest  of  the  opponents 
of  the  Jesuits,  never  mentions  it.  Dr.  Dollinger 
discredits  it.  Huber  writes :  ''With  Dollinger 
and  the  Protestant  historian  Gieseler,  I  consider 
the  Monita  as  spurious  and  a  lampoon  on  the 
Order."  Why,  even  Dr.  Littledale  in  his  most 
bigoted  article  on  the  ''Jesuits"  criticised  above, 
calls  it  "an  ingenious  forgery."  If  further  ref- 
utation be  desired,  it  can  be  got  from  Duhr's 
"Jesuiten-Fabeln,"  2d  Edit.  pp.  47,  etc. 

95.  III.  A  similar  forgery  is  a  Jesuit  oath 
of  a  peculiarly  objectionable  nature.  There  is 
no  such  thing,  a  mere  calumny,  not  a  shadow 
of  proof,  no  historical  authority  that  can  stand 
critical  examination. 

An  elaborate  refutation  of  this  slander  is 
found  in  a  volume  of  the  London  Catholic  Truth 
Society,  1902,  entitled  "Concerning  Jesuits,"  in 
an  article  by  Father  John  Gerard,  headed  "The 


92  Who  Arc  the  Jesuits? 

Jesuit  Oath."  He  traces  the  origin  of  the 
caUimny  to  the  notorious  Robert  Ware,  the  story 
of  whose  forgeries  is  given  with  much  au- 
thentic detail  in  the  Rev.  T.  E.  Bridgett's  learned 
work  ^'Blunders  and  Forgeries,"  pp.  209,  etc. 

The  Weekly  Paper  "America"  for  July  i6th, 
1910,  states  on  page  372: 

The  Irish  Orangemen  have  been  exploiting 
Titus  Oates'  ''Jesuit  Oath"  in  support  of  the 
King's  coronation  oath.  A  Rev.  Mr.  Moffat, 
their  Grand  Master  in  Dublin,  recited  at  a  public 
meeting  *'the  Oath  taken  by  the  Jesuits,"  renounc- 
ing allegiance  to  heretical  States  and  rulers,  obe- 
dience to  their  inferior  magistrates,  etc.  Father 
Delany,  S.J.,  wrote  exposing  the  myth  and 
added:  *T  challenge  him  to  repeat  the  statement 
about  myself  or  any  other  Irish  Jesuit  by  name, 
and  we  shall  without  delay  give  him  an  oppor- 
tunity of  proving  his  statements  in  the  public 
courts."     The  challenge  has  not  been  accepted. 

If  then  the  Jesuits  do  not  bind  all  their  mem- 
bers by  the  obligation  of  an  oath,  how  do  they 
bind  their  consciences  to  live  up  to  the  duties 
of  their  Institute?  They  require  them  to  take 
vows,  or  promises  made  to  God,  on  the  observ- 
ance of  which  their  eternal  salvation  will  depend. 
But  what  are  these  promises?  May  an  out- 
sider know  them,  without  ambiguity  or  reserva- 
tion? Yes,  they  are  printed  in  a  large  variety 
of  books  and  booklets  for  both  private  and  pub- 


Slanders  Agaijist  the  Jesuits  93 

lie  use.  There  is  no  seeret  whatever  about 
them.     Here  they  are : 

When  a  novice  has  spent  two  years  in  prep- 
aration, studying  the  Institute  and  practising  its 
Rules,  he  is  allowed,  not  compelled,  to  take  v/hat 
is  called  his  Simple  Vows.  Then  before  the 
Holy  Altar,  during  Holy  Mass,  he  recites  aloud, 
in  the  presence  of  his  brethren,  the  formula  here 
put  down:  ''Almighty  and  eternal  God,  I  (the 
name),  though  altogether  unworthy  of  Thy 
Divine  sight,  yet  relying  upon  Thy  infinite  mercy, 
and  impelled  by  the  desire  of  serving  Thee, 
in  presence  of  the  most  holy  Virgin  IMary  and 
all  the  Court  of  Heaven,  do  vow  to  Thy  Divine 
Majesty  perpetual  Poverty,  Chastity  and  Obe- 
dience in  the  Society  of  Jesus ;  and  I  promise 
that  I  will  enter  the  said  Society  to  spend  my 
entire  life  therein — understanding  all  things  ac- 
cording to  the  Constitutions  of  the  same  Society. 
Wherefore  I  suppliantly  beg  of  Thine  infinite 
goodness  and  clemency,  by  the  Blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  that  Thou  wouldst  deign  to  accept  this 
liolocaust  in  the  odor  of  sweetness ;  and  as  Thou 
hast  given  me  grace  to  desire  and  offer  it,  so 
Thou  wouldst  also  give  me  abundant  grace  to 
fulfill  it.     Amen." 

These  vows  are  repeated  with  similar  cere- 
monies twice  every  year,  after  three  days  spent 
in  recollection  and  Renewal  of  Spirit,  as  it  is 
called,   so  as  to  check  any  tendency  to   relaxa- 


94  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

tlon  in  their  observance ;  till,  after  the  lapse  of 
about  fifteen  years,  the  Jesuit  Father  is  at  last 
allowed  to  take  his  last  or  solemn  vows,  in 
the  presence  of  public  witnesses,  in  the  follow- 
ing words:  "I — (the  name)  make  profession, 
and  promise  to  Almighty  God,  in  presence  of 
His  Virgin  JMother  and  the  whole  Court  of 
Heaven,  and  all  here  present,  and  to  you.  Rev. 
Father  A.B.,  representing  the  Very  Rev.  Father 
CD.,  Superior-General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
holding  the  place  of  God,  and  to  his  successors, 
perpetual  Poverty,  Chastity,  and  Obedience  in 
the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  moreover  special  care 
of  the  instruction  of  youth,  according  to  the 
mode  of  life  contained  in  the  Apostolic  Letters 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  and  its  Constitutions. 
I  also  promise  special  obedience  to  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  regarding  Missions,  as  is  set  forth  in  the 
same  Apostolic  Letters  and  Constitutions." 
(Place  and  date.)  We  have  given  these  formu- 
las in  full,  because  they  bear  directly  upon  the 
question  treated  in  this  book :  "Who  are  the 
Jesuits?" 

96.  IV.  A  fourth  common  calumny  is  that 
the  Jesuits  are  a  body  of  ambitious  men.  We 
can  only  deal  with  facts,  not  fancies.  Now  it  is 
a  plain  fact  that  everything  conceivable  is  done 
to  keep  down  pride  and  ambition  in  the  Society 
of  Jesus.  Ambition  among  priests  would  natu- 
rally take  the  form  of  efforts  to  attain  ecclesias- 


Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits  95 

tical  dignities,  or  superiorships  within  the  rehg- 
ious  body  to  which  they  belong.  Now  every  pro- 
fessed Jesuit  is  made  to  pronounce  vows  to  God, 
in  the  presence  of  his  brethren  and  superiors, 
which  read  as  follows:  *'I  promise  that  I  will 
never  so  act  or  devise,  even  indirectly,  as  to  be 
chosen  for  or  promoted  to  any  prelacy  or  dignity 
within  the  Society.  Likewise  I  promise  that  I 
will  never  strive  for  any  ambition  of  prelacy  or 
dignity  outside  the  Society,  nor  consent  to  my 
election  to  such,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  unless  I  be 
compelled  by  obedience  to  one  who  has  power  to 
command  me  under  pain  of  sin.  Also,  should 
I  know  that  any  one  is  seeking  or  ambitioning 
dignities  of  any  kind,  I  will  forthwith  inform  the 
Society  or  its  General." 

The  whole  history  of  the  Society  is  there  to 
testify  that  Jesuits  have  not  pushed  themselves 
forward  into  dignities,  but  have  steadily  opposed 
such  promotions,  and  almost  always  actually  es- 
caped them,  except  only  when  missionary  coun- 
tries held  out  to  their  bishops  far  more  hard- 
ships and  dangers  than  honor. 

97.  V.  A  fifth  charge  is  that  the  Jesuits  are 
rich.  They  try  to  make  their  churches  beautiful, 
the  altars  elegant  or  magnificent,  the  vestments 
and  sacred  vessels,  all  in  fact  that  concerns  Di- 
vine service,  as  rich  as  circumstances  allow,  even 
although  a  Judas  may  stand  by  and  say,  "This 
might  have  been  sold  for  much  and  given  to  the 


96  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

poor."  But  the  Jesuits  do  not  possess  any  per- 
sonal property,  for  themselves  or  their  relations. 
They  dress  like  any  decent  secular  priests,  but 
their  rooms  are  more  poorly  furnished  than 
theirs,  with  not  a  book  or  picture  they  can  call 
their  own,  without  any  pocket  money  to  spend 
as  they  may  list,  eating  at  the  common  table  at 
the  appointed  times  only,  sharing  the  same  food 
as  the  plainest  lay-brother  or  the  youngest  novice, 
no  matter  what  important  posts  they  may  fill  or 
have  ever  filled.  And  lest  the  luxury  of  the 
times  should  gradually  bring  in  relaxation,  every 
professed  Father  takes  a  vow,  saying:  ''I  will 
never  in  any  manner  contrive  or  consent  that  the 
ordinances  of  the  Constitutions  of  the  Society 
concerning  Poverty  be  altered,  unless  at  any  time 
there  should  appear  to  be  just  cause  for  further 
restriction."  The  Colleges  of  the  Society  may 
be  magnificent,  but  the  professors  and  lay-broth- 
ers are  all  equally  poor. 

All  these  are  undoubtedly  very  strong  safe- 
guards and  wise  regulations ;  but  it  may  be  asked. 
What  if  any  of  the  members  refuses  to  observe 
them  ?  How  is  the  Society  going  to  compel  ob- 
servance? Is  there  bodily  coercion  or  imprison- 
ment ?  No,  it  is  not  needed ;  a  shorter  and  more 
efficient  remedy  is  at  hand.  The  supervision 
which  the  Society  exercises  over  its  members  is 
strict ;  superiors  are  very  likely  to  find  out  pretty 
soon  whatever  is  seriously  wrong ;  they  admonish 


Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits  97 

the  offending  party  with  great  charity,  correct 
with  wisdom  and  patience,  but,  if  the  evil  is  per- 
sisted in,  dismission  is  an  infalUble  remedy;  and, 
though  not  often  needed,  when  necessary  it  is 
unflinchingly  carried  out.  No  one,  not  even  the 
Father  General,  is  exempt. 

98.  But  while  the  individual  Jesuit  is  poor, 
not  possessed  of  anything  of  which  he  can  dis- 
pose at  will,  is  it  not  a  notorious  fact  that  the 
Society  of  Jesus  is  a  very  rich  corporation,  pos- 
sessed of  vast  estates  in  various  cities  and  coun- 
tries, and  enjoying  an  immense  revenue,  by 
which  all  the  parts  support  one  another?  It  is 
not  true.  Though  even  many  intelligent  Cath- 
olics may  imagine  such  a  state  of  things,  there 
is  no  foundation  for  the-  supposition.  Every 
Jesuit  house  has  its  own  limited  possessions,  of 
real  estate  and  habitual  or  casual  income,  to 
which  no  other  Jesuit  community  has  any  right. 
The  superiors  of  the  Society  can  transfer  their 
subjects  from  one  house  to  another,  but  they 
have  not  normally  the  power  of  transferring 
I^roperty  or  debts  from  one  community  to  an- 
other. Briefly,  there  is  not  among  the  Jesuits  a 
common  purse. 

The  reason  is  that  each  Jesuit  establishment  is 
founded  for  the  service  and  benefit  of  the  partic- 
ular city  or  town  whose  citizens  have  furnished 
the  means  of  erecting  the  buildings  and  support- 
ing their  inmates.     And  are  the  several  houses 


98  Who  Are  the  Jesuitsf 

rich?  As  a  general  rule  they  have  a  very  lim- 
ited income.  A  college  needs  ample  buildings 
for  its  work  and  the  abode  of  the  faculty,  for 
library,  chapel,  lecture  halls,  recitation  rooms, 
laboratories,  etc.,  with  more  or  less  extensive 
grounds  for  its  campus,  etc.  It  must  have  such 
possessions  if  it  is  to  be  a  college  at  all.  And 
it  must  have  a  considerable  income  to  support 
the  institution  in  decent  condition,  and  more  still 
if  it  is  to  make  such  improvements  in  its  accom- 
modations and  furnishings  as  to  enable  it  to 
keep  abreast  of  the  country's  educational  prog- 
ress. Few  if  any  Catholic  colleges  in  this  land, 
whether  managed  by  Jesuits  or  others,  have  more 
than  what  is  strictly  necessary  for  them;  all  can 
rather  be  called  poor  than  rich. 

Parochial  schools  are  not  self-supporting;  they 
are  supported  by  their  respective  parishes,  and 
even  this  is  possible  on  the  sole  condition  that 
the  devoted  Sisters  who  teach  in  them  be  willing 
to  work  for  less  than  half  the  salary  that  is  paid 
to  the  teachers  of  the  public  schools.  Catholic  col- 
leges, as  a  very  general  rule,  would  not  be  pos- 
sible if  it  were  not  for  the  life  of  self-sacrifice 
led  by  the  members  of  their  faculties. 

On  this  matter  the  ignorance  of  many  Catho- 
lics even  is  phenomenal.  Do  they  suppose  that 
college  professors  can  live  on  the  brick  and  mor- 
tar that  constitute  the  buildings?  The  tuition 
fees  of  the  students  would  not  generally  support 


Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits  99 

one-third  of  the  faculty,  if  its  members  had  to 
be  paid  at  the  same  rate  as  such  men  are  in  the 
colleges  of  the  State.  The  wonder  is  that  with 
such  scanty  means  such  success  has  been  and  is 
all  along  being  achieved. 

99.  VI.  Are  not  the  Jesuits  too  independent  of 
the  Bishops f  In  the  care  of  the  parishes  and 
other  such  labors  of  the  sacred  ministry  they  are 
no  more  independent  than  the  secular  clergy. 
In  the  work  of  their  colleges  and  the  internal 
administration  of  their  Order,  like  all  other  re- 
ligious Orders  of  the  Church,  the  Supreme  Pon- 
tiff absolutely  controls  them,  and  imder  his  su- 
pervision allows  them  such  home  government 
and  useful  privileges  as  long  experience  and  the 
light  of  the  Holy  Ghost  have  taught  to  be  most 
conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  faithful  and 
of  the  religious  themselves.  What  would  be- 
come of  any  one  of  the  grand  Orders  in  the 
Church  if  its  spirit  could  be  modified  by  the  in- 
dividual bishops,  each  in  his  own  diocese?  Cer- 
tainly the  unity  of  spirit  could  not  thus  be  main- 
tained, nor  could  the  unity  of  government ;  and 
yet  for  combined  action  both  these  unities  are  of 
paramount  importance. 

100.  VII.  But  do  not  Jesuits  mix  too  much  in 
politics  f  Let  but  the  people  of  the  United  States 
look  around  them :  where  are  the  Jesuit  poli- 
ticians? If  there  is  any  country  where  everyone 
is  likely  to  do  what  he  likes  best,  it  is  this  coun- 


lOO  Who  Are  the  Jesuits? 

try ;  and  the  Jesuits  here  are  and  have  been  all 
along  remarkable,  even  among  the  clergy,  for 
leaving  politics  alone.  The  only  times  when  they 
would  speak  up  would  be  when  legislation  is 
threatened  which  would  injure  immortal  souls. 
But  in  mere  politics,  never. 

What  then  about  the  Gunpowder  Plot?  The 
Jesuits  did  not  meddle  with  that  detestable  con- 
spiracy at  all.  What  two  of  them  were  blamed 
for  by  the  government  of  England,  and  executed 
for,  was  for  not  meddling,  for  not  making  the 
plot  known  to  the  authorities  so  as  to  prevent 
its  execution.  Their  reason  for  abstaining  was 
that  their  knowledge  was  entrusted  to  them  under 
the  seal  of  Sacramental  Confession,  by  one  of 
the  conspirators,  who  consulted  his  confessor 
about  the  lawfulness  of  the  attempt.  In  no  case 
whatever  is  the  confessor  allowed  to  betray  the 
secrets  of  the  confessional.  Fr.  Garnett  did  all 
he  could  to  dissuade  Catesby  from  the  rash  en- 
terprise, and  got  a  promise  from  him  that  noth- 
ing should  be  done  without  permission  of  the 
Holy  See,  which  of  course  would  not  have  been 
given.  But  Catesby  broke  his  promise,  and 
acted  without  any  further  knowledge  of  the  con- 
fessor. 

But  did  not  some  Jesuits  sometimes  meddle 
in  mere  political  matters  ?  Possibly  so  ;  no  sane 
man  would  pretend  that  no  Jesuit  ever  made  a 
mistake.     But    certain    it    is    that    the    Society 


Slanders  Against  the  Jesuits         loi 

strictly  forbids  it  to  all  her  members,  under  the 
severest  penalties.  Every  year  that  prohibition 
is  read  before  all  the  members  of  the  Order.  To 
say  therefore  that  the  Society  meddles  in  politics 
is  a  gross  slander. 

These  pages  contain  a  very  imperfect  sketch  of 
the  labors  and  struggles  of  the  Jesuits  during  the 
course  of  their  checkered  existence ;  but  they  are 
deemed  suificient  to  make  knoivn  the  spirit  and 
main  purpose  of  their  society,  zvhich  are  ex- 
pressed in  their  zvell  known  motto 

AD  MAJOREM  DEI  GLORIAM 
To  the  Greater  Glory  of  God. 


REFERENCES  FOR  INFORMATION  ON 

THE  JESUITS. 

Francis  Thompson — Life  of  St.  Ignatius. 

Bartoli — Life  of  St.  Ignatius. 

B.  N. — The  Jesuits,  Their  Foundation  and  History. 

Kip  (Protestant  Bishop) — Jesuit  Missions  in  the  U.  S. 

Hughes — Loyola,  or  Educational  System  of  the 
Jesuits, 

Maynard — The  Jesuits :  Their  Studies  and  Teaching. 

Schwickerath — Jesuit  Education. 

De  Ravignan — The  Life  and  Institute  of  the  Jesuits. 

Weld — The  Suppression  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in 
Portugal. 

Caddell — Missions  in  Japan  and  Paraguay. 

Wolferstan — Catholic  Church  in  China. 

Father  Prout's  Works — The  Jesuits  and   Literature.. 

Jansen — History  of  the  German  People,  Vol.  XII, 
XIII. 

American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review  Vol.  II,  p.  51 : 
Pombal  and  the  Jesuits. 

American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review  III,  404: — La 
Salle  and  the  Jesuits. 

American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review  XIII,  119:  The 
Jesuits  and  End  and  Means. 

American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review  July,  1890,  472 : 
The  Immoral  Teachings  of  the  Jesuits. 

The  Month,  Aug.,  1882,  p.  538:  The  Encyclop.  Brit,  on 
the  Jesuits. 

The  Month,  May,  1882,  49:  Anti-Jesuit  Morals. 

The  Month,  March,  1873,  269:  The  Jesuits  and  Tyran- 
nicide. 

102 


References  103 

The  Month,  July,  1873,  96 :  The  Monita  Secreta. 

The  Month,  Jan,,  1893,  5i  '■  The  Monita  Secreta. 

The  Month,  March,  1871,  201 :  Pascal's  Provincial 
Letters. 

The  Month,  Nov.,  1889,  439:  Dr.  Littledale  and  the 
Jesuits. 

The  Month,  Oct.,  1896,  157:  Blind  Obedience. 

Dublin  Review,  Sept.,  1856,  66:  Anti-Jesuit  Crusade. 

Dublin  Review,  Aug.,  1861,  329:  Calumnies  on  the 
Jesuits. 

English  Catholic  Truth  Society: — Concerning  Jesuits. 

Burrows  Brothers — Jesuit  Relations  and  Allied  Docu- 
ments, 72  volumes. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX 
Numbers,  not  pages,  are  referred  to. 


Aloysius,  St.,  65. 

Ambition,  96. 

America,  66,  67,  71,  72. 

Anchieta,   66. 

Auger,  61. 

Azevedo,   66. 

Berchmans,   St.,  65. 
Borgia,  St.,  27,  48,  63. 
Brazil,  66. 
Bressiani,  71. 
Br  Get,  22,  23. 

Campion,  Bl.,  77. 
Canada,  71,  72. 
Canisius,  Bl.,  27,  53,  57. 
Catai,  69. 
China,  68. 
Clement  XIV,  82. 
Coadjutors,  40. 
Codure,   22. 
Colleges,   46-49,    54,   57, 

58,  89. 
Companions  of  Ignatius, 

19-21,  26. 
Constitution,  28-43. 

Empress     Catherine     II, 

86. 
End  and  Means,  93. 
England,  76-79. 

Faults,  81. 

Favre,  Bl,  22,  25,  27. 

Forty  Martyrs,  66. 


105 


France,  61,  75,  81,  83,  88, 

91- 
Frederick  II,  85. 

Garnet,  78,  100. 
Germany,  25,  26,  52,  73, 

91- 
Goes,  69. 

Government,  42. 

History  of  the  Jesuits,  3, 

10,  72. 
Henry    VIII,   23. 
Hozes,  22. 

Ignatius,    St.,    11-22,  29, 

44,  46,  59- 
Independence,   99. 
'India,  70. 
Indies,  24,  31. 
Innocent  XI,  68. 
Ireland,  23. 

Jansenists,  84. 

Japan,   24. 

Jesuit  Relations,  72. 

Lay-Brothers,   41. 
Laynes,  22,  44,  60,  61. 
Le  Jay,  22,  25,  44,  53. 

Alacaulay,  73,  74. 
Marquette,  71. 
Maynard,  57. 
Missions,  66-72. 


io6 


Index 


^onita  Secreta,  94. 
Montaigne,   55,  56. 

Netherlands,  6^. 
Nobili,  70. 
Novices,  30-32. 
Numbers,  63,  92. 

Oath,  95. 
Obedience,  43. 

Paraguay,  67. 
Parsons,  yj,  78. 
Persecution,  76,  92. 
Poland,  57. 
Politics,   100, 
Pombal,  83. 

Portugal,  48,  50,  75,  83. 
Possevinus,  62. 
Professed,  38,  39. 
Protestantism,  y^y  7A- 
Publicity,  5,  7. 

Ranke,  52,  54,  55,  57- 
Reductions,  66,  67. 
Reformation,  25,.  52. 
Restoration,  85. 
Rhodes,  70. 
Ricci,  67,  68. 
Riches,   97,  98. 
Rodriguez,  22. 


Sacred  Heart,  87. 

Salmeron,  22,,  44. 

Sarpi,  47. 

Schall,  (^. 

Secrecy,  i,  4,  5.   78,  79. 

Slanders,  2,  6,  8,  9,  45, 

74,  93-100. 
Society  of  Jesus,  17. 
Spain,  27,  63,  75,  83,  84, 

Spiritual    Exercises,    14, 

29,.  32. 
Stanislaus,  St.,  64. 
Studies,  18,  32-37. 
Suppression,  82-85. 

Tong-King,  70. 
Training,  80. 
Trent,  27,  44. 

Venezuela,  62. 
Verbiest,  68. 
Vocation,  30,  31. 
Vows,   19,  25,  33,  3&-40, 
95- 

White  Russia,  86,  87. 
Writers,  90. 
Worms,  25. 

Xavier,   St.,   22,  24. 


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